About 1,089 Nigerian asylum seekers who arrived the Netherlands between last year and January this year are reportedly missing, raising serious concern in the country.
The National Research Council (NRC) Handelsblad which collaborated with Lost in Europe in its June 2020 report, said the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) identified a significant number of the cases.
Reacting to the investigative group’s findings, Shamir Ceuleers of the Dutch Centre Against Human and Child Trafficking says the results are not surprising because they follow a pattern that has been going on for years.
Ceuleers said “The Dutch police should create a specific West African human trafficking unit, which invests in knowledge and expertise and is well connected to the West African community that we have here in the Netherlands. And by using this and creating this expertise, the Dutch police would be well equipped to prosecute these trafficking rings. Within Europe, it’s essential to work together and to exchange experiences but also exchange data of the missing children and women and men. So if they disappear and pop up somewhere in conditions considered human trafficking, they can easily be identified. I think that’s really essential, and to give them the protection they need”.