The arson attack at the asylum seekers’ centre in Loosdrecht, which put fifteen asylum seekers and COA staff at risk, is not an isolated incident. It forms part of a series of violent incidents targeting people with a migrant background across Europe, linked to the Identitarian Movement, which is gathering in Portugal this weekend for a ‘Remigration summit’. This has emerged from research by Lost in Europe in collaboration with the Flemish magazine Knack.
Following the fire in Loosdrecht, Bart Van den Brink, the Dutch Minister for Asylum and Migration, announced that the General Intelligence and Security Service (AIVD) is investigating whether this violence was organised and whether there has been foreign interference.
Research by Lost in Europe and Knack identified several violent incidents across the European Union which, like the fire in Loosdrecht, had a racist motive and are linked to the far-right Identitarian Movement. This is an international network of parties and affiliated organisations that seek to normalise far-right terminology such as ‘remigration’, ‘population replacement’ and ‘white ethnostatus’.
