Drawing on research by the Research and Documentation Centre (WODC) of the Dutch Ministry of Security and Justice (Kromhout et al., 2010), this article describes how the Dutch government tried to protect Unaccompanied Minor Asylum Seekers (UMAs) who were (at risk of becoming) victims of human trafficking by implementing "Protected Reception". It was concluded that the three objectives of this pilot programme were met to some extent: the influx of risk groups and the number of disappearances decreased, yet there was no (immediate) increase in return migration to the country of origin, after leaving Protected Reception. An important question that was raised was how far a state can go in protecting these vulnerable young people, by (partially) limiting their freedom of movement. It was concluded that placement and stay in Protected Reception had to be qualified as a deprivation of liberty for which Dutch legislation did not offer any ground. © 2014 The Authors.

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international migration Netherlands government immigration policy policy approach legislation asylum seeker trafficking