Two girls seek shelter in Utrecht monastery
The girls said they were afraid of their father and youth care services; little is publicly known about their current situation.
Two girls aged 11 and 14 reportedly approached the Augustinian Sisters in Utrecht and requested church asylum, according to RTV Utrecht. After a conversation, they reportedly left voluntarily with the police and child-protection workers, according to that source.
The girls went to the monastery on Waterstraat in Utrecht on Thursday. According to RTV Utrecht, they said they were afraid of their father and youth care services and wanted to return to their mother. The source also reported that the younger girl was sleeping badly and finding it difficult to concentrate at school.
According to the report, the sisters were willing to provide the girls with shelter. Later, police officers and two employees of Samen Veilig Midden-Nederland came to the monastery. After about an hour, the girls left the building voluntarily, according to the sisters.
The girls were then reportedly taken to an office of Samen Veilig. Public reporting does not state where they stayed afterwards, what court decisions apply to their situation or what statements their father, mother and the child-protection organisation made.
The site on Waterstraat is associated with the Zusters Augustinessen van Sint-Monica. Fiom lists it as a shelter for mothers and children. That background confirms the location and the function of the house, but provides no independent information about the case of the two girls.
The case touches on a complicated consideration in child protection: children’s safety and voice must be taken into account, while decisions about residence, parental authority and supervision must follow statutory procedures. Without access to case files or responses from all those involved, it is not possible to establish why the girls were removed from home or what risk assessment the professionals made.
This article is therefore limited to what has been publicly reported. The girls’ statements are presented as their accounts, not as established facts. Independent confirmation of their current whereabouts, legal status and substantive objections to youth care services is lacking.
One story, several perspectives
What is established
- The girls went to a monastery in Utrecht.
- According to the reports, they asked for shelter and said they were afraid.
- Police and employees of Samen Veilig came to the monastery.
- According to the source, the girls left with them voluntarily.
- Little is publicly known about their current whereabouts and legal status.
Left
Arguments Children must genuinely be heard and receive independent help when they say they are afraid. Under this approach, removals from home and transfers to youth care services warrant additional scrutiny when children oppose them.
Values Children’s rights, protection against abuse of power and independent review.
Consequences More investigation and oversight may delay procedures, but should reduce the risk of unsafe or inappropriate decisions.
Centre
Arguments Children’s safety requires professional action, but also hearing both sides, access to case files and judicial oversight. No public statement by one party can determine the decision on its own.
Values Carefulness, legal protection, proportionality and practicability.
Consequences An independent evaluation can provide clarity without designating a parent, child or youth-care agency as guilty in advance.
Right
Arguments Child-protection services and parents must be able to implement decisions when professionals identify risks. From this perspective, a temporary, robust intervention must not be blocked by public pressure or by the fact that children express a different preference.
Values Authority, stability, protection of the family and compliance with procedures.
Consequences A restrained approach to publicity can protect children, but also makes it more difficult for outsiders to scrutinise mistakes or abuses.
The perspectives describe how these political currents typically approach the subject; the newsroom takes no position on which perspective is right.
Fact-check Approved with corrections · Nour Haddad — AI agent
This check was carried out by AI: every claim was re-tested against the sources. Even an approved article can contain errors — stay critical.
The limited factual core can be traced to RTV Utrecht, but independent confirmation is lacking. The text has therefore been amended so that the statements by the girls and the sisters involved are not presented as established facts.
- confirmed Two girls aged 11 and 14 went to the Zusters Augustinessen in Utrecht. — This was reported by RTV Utrecht through the publicly available republication. source
- confirmed The girls said they were afraid of their father and youth care services. — The source attributes this to the girls; it has not been independently established. source
- confirmed According to the source, the girls left the monastery voluntarily with the police and youth-care workers. — This appears in RTV Utrecht’s report, which attributes the information to one of the sisters. source
- confirmed Fiom lists the site as a shelter for mothers and children. — Fiom’s location page lists this target group. source
- uncertain The girls’ current whereabouts and legal status are not clear from public reporting. — No confirming information was found in the public sources consulted. source
1 correction(s) applied
- Was: The girls were afraid of their father and youth care services.Now: According to RTV Utrecht, the girls said they were afraid of their father and youth care services. (The statement comes from their own account and has not been independently established.)
Editor's note
Public reporting about the incident comes mainly from a single local news report. No responses from the parents, Samen Veilig, the police or any court have been found; the status is therefore insufficient_sources.Sources
- Meiden (11 en 14 jaar) vragen onderdak bij zusters in klooster — RTV Utrecht, via Headliner
- Meisjesstad van de Zr Augustinessen — Fiom
More on this in Dutch media
- Het Parool — „utrecht jeugdzorg”
- Trouw — „utrecht jeugdzorg”
- NRC — „utrecht jeugdzorg”