Two Dutch kidnappings every day

4 May 2005

AMSTERDAM — Two kidnappings are carried out every day in the Netherlands, figures compiled by a Dutch newspaper indicated on Wednesday.

Kidnappings can either be for ransom, the abduction of children by parents or the locking up of personnel by robbers, newspaper ‘Algemeen Dagblad’ (AD) reported.

Police registered 842 kidnappings and cases in which someone was deprived of his/her freedom last year, a rise of 6.5 percent compared with 2003.

Most of the cases do not earn media publicity.

The Stolen Children Foundation said 120 children are kidnapped out of the Netherlands each year, often by Arabic fathers who take their children to their land of origin and disappear without trace.

The figures indicate that almost half of the registered cases occur in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague. A percentage of these are business conflicts in the crime world.

The Dutch Police Institute could not give an unequivocal explanation for the rise in kidnappings.

However, it said kidnappings in families are frequent and that municipal councils and interested groups are campaigning for people to report crimes, leading to a higher number of registered offences.

Daily newspaper AD based its figures on statistics from the nation’s 25 police corps. It will publish on Saturday a complete annual review of crime on its website (www.ad.nl).

Subject: Dutch news