ANP extension
ANNOUNCEMENTS•
Half of minor asylum seekers who arrive in the Netherlands on their own are reunited with their families within five years. That percentage is much higher than for other asylum seekers: only 27% of them brought their families after five years.
According to the data of Central Bureau of Statistics these are mainly Syrian minors whose relatives are traveling abroad. This happens in three quarters of cases. The reunion is often quicker for this group because they usually have better documentation with them, which speeds up the process.
Syrians are the second largest group of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers, numbering 3,745 between 2014 and the first half of last year. The largest group in this category were Eritreans, with a total of 4350 people. Just under a third of them had rejoined their families after three years.
Most of the unaccompanied minor asylum seekers were between 15 and 18 years old, 82%. The group was 81% boys. On average, 1,900 of these children arrived in the Netherlands each year between 2014 and 2022, with a peak of over 4,000 in 2015, during the asylum crisis.
