To leave Morocco, he finds his smuggler on Instagram and pays him 1,000 euros
A young Moroccan told Dutch justice that he found on Instagram the man who was supposed to help him reach Europe clandestinely. He pays him 1,000 euros before setting off by boat, but the situation becomes more complicated once he arrives in Spain.
Born in 2003, the young man says he left Morocco because of poverty and unemployment. On Instagram, he contacts a smuggler who offers to help him reach Europe clandestinely by boat. He accepts and pays him a 1,000-euro deposit.
On Bladi.net : The courts rule in his favor in the Netherlands, then order him to return to Morocco anyway
His account appears in a decision by the The Hague District Court issued on August 6. Once in Spain, the Moroccan was supposed to earn enough money to pay the remainder of the agreed price.
He says he was unable to do so. The smuggler allegedly then began calling and threatening him, before also going to members of his family in Morocco. Fearing for his life if he returned, the young man says he blocked his number in August 2025.
In the Netherlands, a first return decision was imposed on him on August 21, 2025. An asylum application filed the following month was subsequently closed without further action after he left without providing a known address.
The threats fail to convince the courts
The Moroccan filed a new asylum application on March 19, 2026, this time primarily citing the smuggler’s threats. The Dutch authorities accept his identity and nationality, but consider his problems with this man insufficiently credible.
Before the court, he explains that the threats were essentially verbal and therefore difficult to prove. His phone was also allegedly stolen, preventing him from producing the calls he had received or proof that he had blocked the smuggler.
The judges are not convinced. They point in particular to the absence of documents proving the threats and to the fact that he did not ask his family in Morocco to provide any possible evidence, even though he claims that the smuggler had gone to his relatives’ home.
The court also takes into account the timing of his new asylum application, given that he had already been held in administrative detention for several months. For the authorities, this step could also have been intended to delay his removal.
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On August 6, his appeal was rejected. The court does not dispute the contact with the smuggler found on Instagram or the payment of the 1,000 euros, but considers that the threats invoked to obtain protection in the Netherlands have not been sufficiently established.