They threaten and humiliate Catalan students with a supposed firearm in the Netherlands
The minors, who were there on an exchange, were forced to kneel and ask for forgiveness while they were recorded on video
BarcelonaSeveral students from a high school in the north of the Netherlands, among whom there would be Catalan exchange students, were threatened with a supposed firearm, humiliated, and filmed by strangers in two incidents that took place this Monday in the municipality of Haren. According to local television RTV Noord, it was the school itself (the Harens Lyceum center) that reported the events in a letter sent to parents and guardians of the center. Sources from the Department of Education confirm that an incident has occurred and explain that the Government is already monitoring this situation in coordination with the Spanish consular authorities in the Netherlands "to have a more precise understanding of the events that may have occurred and to study the necessary actions."
The first incident took place around the Haren train station, where a small group of Catalan students heading to a sports event were intercepted by a young stranger. As the center explained, the individual, who "believed he had been insulted" by the students, showed them a supposed firearm. Without knowing if it was real or fake, in the presence of the weapon, the minors were forced to kneel and apologize while the young man filmed them with a mobile phone. "After apologizing, they were able to continue on their way," explains the school. Immediately after the incident, the students alerted their teachers, who contacted the police. Several officers went to the scene and took statements from those affected.
A few hours later, a similar incident occurred near a supermarket in the center of Haren. There, following the same pattern, another group of Dutch and Catalan students were threatened by some individuals, who also forced them to kneel and apologize, again under the threat of a possible firearm and filming them on video.
Among the Catalan students who were victims of the incident, there would be a 14-year-old student from Barcelona who had arrived in the Netherlands a few days earlier to participate in an exchange. The host family told RTV Noord that the boy is in good condition and that his parents have already been informed of the events. Likewise, the school indicated that it has maintained contact with the Catalan group's representatives and the minors' families.
Part of a diffusion phenomenon on social media
From the Dutch institute, they emphasize that the perpetrators of the events have no relation to the school. "Today it's a group of our students, but it could have been anyone," they say. In fact, the incidents coincide with the growing concern of the Dutch authorities about the spread through social networks of the so-called zeg sorry-videos: videos where young people are forced under threats to kneel and apologize, sometimes even with physical assaults. A phenomenon that particularly worries the Dutch police due to its impact on victims. Now the institute is cooperating with the police to prevent new incidents.
Although it has confirmed that the activities of the exchange program remain valid, the Harens Lyceum has recommended that students travel in groups and not alone.
