Woman jailed for Isis membership later worked for Dutch refugee council

A woman who was jailed in 2019 for membership of Islamic State subsequently worked for the Dutch refugee council, where she had access to refugees’ personal and legal files.

Dutch national broadcaster Nos reported that the woman (39), who hasn’t been named, was sentenced to 30 months by a court in Rotterdam for travelling to Baghdad in 2015 to join the outlawed jihadist group whose self-declared “caliphate” was then at its height.

The court heard at the time that police examining her brother’s mobile phone had found images of the woman posing beside the black flag of Islamic State (also known as Isis) and holding a Kalashnikov rifle.

She said she had travelled to Baghdad and on to Islamic State-controlled cities of Falluja and Mosul, both devastated by war, as “a tourist” intending only to visit her extended family.

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The judge imposing sentence noted, however, that she had “failed to distance herself unequivocally” from the jihadists.

Following her jail term, and despite her criminal conviction, the woman successfully applied to the department of justice for a VOG, a certificate of good behaviour necessary to work in certain sensitive employment.

With the certificate she successfully applied to Vlucktelingenwerk, the Dutch refugee agency, to work as a voluntary legal assistant, without her record coming to light.

The department of justice said it did not comment on individual applications for VOGs, or on how a convicted jihadist might use one to secure a job with an organisation helping those fleeing war in areas such as Iraq and Syria.

Vlucktelingenwerk said it did not know about the woman’s conviction. It “assumed that if a valid VOG has been issued then that person can carry out voluntary work for us”.

The woman said to the national broadcaster, Nos, that she had informed her probation officer that she intended to apply for a VOG and had been warned that it might be “challenging”.

However, she said she had “no trouble at all”.

The Yazidi Foundation described the series of events as “scandalous”.

Islamic State was accused of genocide against the Yazidis of northern Iraq in 2014.

“Where a refugee organisation has ties with someone who belonged to a genocidal organisation, that is scandalous,” a spokesperson said.

“Countless Yazidis have been victims of [Islamic State] including my own family.”