The mayors of eight Dutch cities and three of their Belgian colleagues will meet the head of the Dutch counter-terrorism service on Tuesday to discuss how to deal with Jihadists returning to Europe.

According to the AD, among those present will be the mayors of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague, Delft, Leiden and Antwerp.

They will meet at a secret location with Dick Schoof, head of the counter-terrorism service to discuss how to deal with young nationals who have returned from fighting in Syria, the AD reports.

Open borders

The Dutch security service AIVD estimates that 750 Jihadists have already returned to Europe. AIVD chief Rob Bertholee told the paper it is of vital importance that every EU country remains vigilant because of the open borders.

Last week, the AIVD said that since 2012 a total of 130 people had travelled to Syria from the Netherlands to join in the fighting. Nearly 30 of them have since returned.

Also last week, the government announced a partial u-turn on its plans to cut spending on the security services by €34m in the wake of rising fears about the terrorist threat. The AIVD now faces a budget cut of €9m.