Published On 6/5/2026
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Last update: 14:40 (Mecca time)
The wife of Palestinian refugee Wissam Miqdad revealed the details of her being beaten and dragged by Dutch police officers inside an asylum center, when she was pregnant, before she later gave birth to her baby.
The wife, Malak Al Mahmoud, told Al Jazeera that she clearly informed the police officers about her pregnancy and asked them to treat her gently, but they pushed and pulled her forcefully.
Malak, the Syrian resident in Germany, added that the consequences of the incident appeared directly on her health, and she said that her labor symptoms began after a short period and continued for several days before she gave birth to her baby.
Although the couple confirmed that their daughter was born healthy, the family still lives in complete legal ambiguity regarding her status and future in Europe, and the repercussions of the incident continue to cast a shadow on their psychological state.
In the same context, Wissam Miqdad, a Palestinian from the Gaza Strip, said that what happened came in the context of psychological and living pressures that accumulated on him as a result of procedures related to his residency file in the Netherlands, and after he was informed that he would be deported to Egypt and his wife to Germany.
The video of the attack received millions of views on digital platforms, amid widespread interaction and angry comments denouncing the incident. Activists and human rights activists considered that the circulating scenes raise new questions about the use of force inside asylum centers, and call for a review of mechanisms for dealing with sensitive humanitarian cases.
For its part, the Dutch police reported that they were reviewing the circumstances of the use of force during an arrest carried out inside a center for asylum seekers in Zeft, following the spread of video clips of the incident, noting that the circulating footage shows only “part of the course of the incident.”
According to Dutch media, the operation took place on May 19 in the Kampweg area, following a report of a quarrel inside the center, which required police intervention.
The incident brings back to the forefront the controversy over the methods of how the security services deal with asylum seekers and the limits of the use of force in such cases, amid increasing human rights questions about the extent of European authorities’ commitment to the standards of protecting the most vulnerable groups, especially pregnant women, while implementing security measures.
