Thu 07 September 2023:
Concern over the rise in children and unaccompanied minors staying in Dutch emergency refugee shelters has been voiced by UNICEF, Anadolu Agency reported quoting local media on Wednesday.
According to information from the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), NL Times reported that as of the end of August there were 3,969 children in emergency shelters in the Netherlands, including 1,844 unaccompanied miners.
In light of the increase in the number of unaccompanied minors using country’s emergency asylum shelters, UNICEF has expressed deep worry for the safety of children.
In these shelters, the children have no privacy and no access to education, said UNICEF Netherlands Director Suzanne Laszlo, according to broadcaster NOS.
They are often left unsupervised, sleep alone in dirty beds, and lack access to clean sanitary facilities, she said, warning that this can cause health problems.
“How well these children are cared for varies per location and is very unclear, which is worrying,” she was quoted as saying by the NOS.
She also called on the Dutch parliament to take the necessary steps in an attempt to obligate local authorities to provide more shelters for asylum seekers “as quickly as possible.”
The number of asylum seekers is outpacing available space in the country’s normal asylum seeker centers, therefore municipalities have built temporary emergency shelters in gyms and event halls.
Over 23,000 irregular migrants now reside in these emergency shelters.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
______________________________________________________________
FOLLOW INDEPENDENT PRESS:
TWITTER (CLICK HERE)
https://twitter.com/IpIndependent
FACEBOOK (CLICK HERE)
https://web.facebook.com/ipindependent
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
