A 37-year-old man from Syria was arrested at Schiphol on suspicion of human smuggling. Military police suspected that one of the children in his company was traveling with a false passport.
The man was arrested last Saturday, but the Royal Military Police only announced his arrest yesterday.
The man and the two children aged 6 and 11 flew from the Georgian capital Tblisi to Schiphol on Georgian Airways flight A9652. After arrival they were checked at the gate by military police. They were in possession of German refugee passports with a residence permit.
Passport photo
The 11-year-old boy turned out to be the suspect’s son, but the 6-year-old boy was suspected of traveling on a false passport. He didn’t look like the photo in the passport. The military police blame the man for putting his own child in a vulnerable position by using him to smuggle another child.
The 6-year-old child has been handed over to the Nidos foundation, a guardianship organization for unaccompanied minors. The case is being investigated by a specialist investigation team of the Royal Military Police at Schiphol, which is involved in combating human smuggling and human trafficking.