The displacement of asylum children causes unnecessary developmental damage and psychosocial problems. This is what professionals from Youth Health Care and Education write in an urgent letter to the State Secretary.
The movement of asylum children must be stopped immediately. AJN Youth Doctors, Nurses and Caregivers Netherlands, LOWAN, the PO-Raad and the VO-Raad write a burning letter to State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum and Migration, VVD) on Tuesday. The care and education professionals have seen “the negative consequences” of the movements of asylum children for years. According to them, the constant relocation disrupts “children’s development” and increases the risk of “depression, detachment and anxiety.”
A reception location
The organizations advocate one reception location throughout the asylum procedure. This would provide children with the stability and security they need. Asylum children are extra vulnerable, according to the professionals. “They are burdened with major events in the country of origin or during the flight, and with an asylum procedure that entails fear and uncertainty.” According to the professionals, relocations in the Netherlands cause extra stress and lead to a standstill or even deterioration. According to them, asylum children also fall behind in education because education is interrupted because of the relocations.
Worrying in the night
Pediatrician Petra de Jong sees that many asylum children suffer from sleeping problems. “When they are in bed, they start worrying so that they do not fall asleep.” They also find it difficult to make contact and do not dare to make friends for fear of another goodbye.
Attachment problems can also manifest themselves in other ways, says school director ISK Yurien van Starkenburg from Katwijk. “We see that some children are too easy with strangers. They don’t even ask who you are or they’re already hanging on your leg. This can entail risks for the child.”
Society pays the price
The current policy for the reception of asylum seekers not only has harmful consequences for children applying for asylum, but according to the organizations it also leads to a waste of valuable resources in healthcare, education and COA. “The inefficient process of building up and transferring care and having to say goodbye to children repeatedly makes it impossible to ensure healthy development and provide opportunities for the future.” According to the professionals, this has ‘serious consequences for individual children, for which society ultimately pays the price.’
Problems in asylum reception
The problems for children in asylum centers continue to pile up. Newspaper of the North wrote in February about asylum children who cannot go to school due to relocations and a shortage of places in newcomer education. There is also still no extra capacity for the reception of foreign minors who have come to the Netherlands on their own. The NOS wrote at the beginning of March that the Netherlands is short of more than 4700 reception places.
The House of Representatives will debate asylum reception on Thursday. One of the topics discussed in the debate is the reception of unaccompanied minor refugees (amv).