Dutch youth care agency sent children to Spain without consent

Child protection organisation SAVE has placed vulnerable young people in care programmes in Spain without the required consent of the Spanish authorities, and continued to do so even after Dutch courts ruled against the practice, an investigation by current affairs programme Nieuwsuur has found.

Under EU rules in force since 2022, a child can only be placed in care in another member state with that country’s prior consent. Spain only admits foreign minors to such programmes if one parent is Spanish or the child is being placed with relatives, according to the investigation.

SAVE, which operates in Utrecht and Flevoland, was told by courts several times in the summer of 2024 that Spanish consent was required. In the months that followed, it placed two more young people in Spain without it.

Brought back
Children’s judges then ordered the children returned to the Netherlands. “The minor was visibly and understandably deeply upset on hearing the decision,” one judge noted in a ruling.

SAVE told Nieuwsuur it had tried to obtain Spanish consent retrospectively and said the placements went ahead because suitable care in the Netherlands was “not available in time”. The organisation said the young people themselves wanted to stay in Spain and that an immediate return would have posed risks.

Even after the rulings, it took months to bring them back. “The current reality is that a suitable place can take 9 to 12 months,” a spokesperson said.

No oversight
Children’s judges have warned that unauthorised placements leave youngsters without supervision from the host country’s authorities, and that Dutch organisations have no power to intervene if a child runs away or commits an offence. Similar programmes for Dutch youth also operate in Poland, Portugal, France and Belgium.

The practice had already reached parliament. Written questions filed in June 2025 cited an appeal court ruling from March that year which found SAVE had breached European rules by placing a minor in Spain without consent.

The child protection system is under wider strain: more than 200 children currently have no permanent legal guardian because of staff shortages.