Calling them ‘Dutch’ is really a stretch…
Intelligence Services: More Dutch Children of Jihadis than thought before
The general Dutch intelligence service AIVD says now that there are at least 175 children with a Dutch parent in Syria and Iraq. Before their estimate was that the number was 100 children. More than half is younger than four years.
AIVD: many more Dutch children in Syria and Iraq
According to security service AIVD there are at least 175 children with a Dutch parent in Syria and Iraq. More than half are younger than four years.
There are 175 children with a Dutch parent in Syria and Iraq. This is reported by the AIVD security service in its annual report . Earlier, the service was still based on about 100 children in the battlefield.
Less than a third of the children were taken to a battlefield by one or both parents. Two thirds were born there and thus often only a few years old. Less than 10 percent is older than 9 years. They could potentially have had combat training. Though, according to the AIVD, this is “very unlikely” for girls and children living with terror groups that are not related to Islamic State (IS), but to Al-Qaeda.
The issue of ‘jihad children’ is uncomfortable for The Hague politics. The coalition is divided over the question of whether children of Dutch jihadists should be brought to the Netherlands. ChristenUnie and D66 believe that the Netherlands should do this in exceptional cases. CDA and VVD do not see much.
