Government apologises for harm to youth in secure care

The Dutch government has formally apologized to children who were once held in secure youth care facilities, acknowledging the institutions were both unsafe and harmful to those housed there. Youth Minister Mirjam Sterk emphasized during a ceremony on Saturday that "it was not and is not your fault. Nothing you went through in secure youth care was your own doing."

Over the past two decades, more than 20,000 individuals have been placed in gesloten jeugdzorg, or closed residential facilities for children unable to remain at home. These institutions impose restrictions on youth, limiting their ability to leave, use physical restraint, and confine them in isolation. Former resident Anne Krijtenburg told broadcaster NOS, "If you have done something wrong, you say sorry."

Krijtenburg spent several months in a secure youth facility during her youth. Research by the Forgotten Child Foundation indicates that 75% of those interviewed developed additional psychological problems as a result of their time in closed youth care. The government has plans to phase out these facilities by 2030 and replace them with smaller living groups.