At least five women a year need police protection from relatives because they are facing honour-related violence, according to information from two dedicated women’s refuges quoted by Nieuwsuur.

The claim follows news that an 18-year-old girl killed by relatives last year had been receiving police protection but that it ended shortly before she was murdered.

The body of 18-year-old Ryan Al Najjar from Joure in Friesland was found in a swamp in Lelystad last year. She had come to the attention of police after neigbours reported an incident in 2023 in which she ran from the house in her bare feet to ask them for help, saying, “my father wants to kill me”.

According to an investigation by the Leeuwarder Courant, the protection stopped shortly before her death. The public prosecutor would not comment on the reasons why Ryan was no longer under police protection.

However, an official told journalists, “it it is rare that people are dropped from a protection programme if they are still under threat. If relatives have got it into their heads that their family honour has been affected, the chance is very small that they will let it go.”

Her two brothers have denied in court they have anything to do with the killing. They admitted taking their sister to their father but said “they never expected him to be capable of this,” a lawyer for one of the brothers said.

The father allegedly admitted to the murder of his daughter in two e-mails in Arabic to the Telegraaf. He is thought to have fled to Syria.

Police have called for more attention to be paid to women’s rights in the official Dutch integration programme because reports of honour-based violence are mounting.

Some 619 cases of honour-related abuse were reported last year to the dedicated police unit Landelijk Expertisecentrum Eergerelateerd Geweld, compared to 460 10 years ago.

Last year, a quarter of the honour-related incidents concerned Syrians, followed by Turkish, Moroccan and Afghan families.