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The Netherlands police announced that they have found a 5-year-old child from Turkey in Maastricht, unattended and alone who said he was an earthquake victim.
First Children and Women (ÖNCE) Association in Turkey had claimed in previous months, that some children found or rescued after the devastating February 6 earthquakes were kidnapped by religious sects or handed over to the wrong people who introduced themselves as their family members. The association also made a criminal complaint regarding these claims.
The ÖNCE association issued a statement today (May 25) related to the event in Maastricht.
"That a 5-year-old child was found in Maastricht, the Netherlands alone and unattended, who says that he is an earthquake victim, increases our concerns. This sad event reveals that our concerns related to the kidnapping of children are justified and that unfortunately human trafficking is not being controlled or combated in the country," they said.
The association called for immediate research and investigation into how a child could go from the earthquake-hit region in the south of Turkey all the way to the Netherlands, and why he/she was alone there.
Minister: "The child is not a citizen of Turkey"
Derya Yanık, the Minister of Family and Social Services, also made an announcement. Yanık informed that the Foreign Ministry of Turkey contacted the Netherlands authorities after today's reports and that they received the information that the child was not a citizen of Turkey.
According to Minister Yanık, the response that the Foreign Ministry got from their counterparts in the Netherlands has been "We cannot give you any further information because the child is not a citizen of Turkey,"
She, therefore, stated that the claim that a small child, an earthquake survivor, and a citizen of Turkey, was found unattended in the Netherlands was not true.
(EMK/PE)
