Americans detained at Schiphol on people smuggling charges; Fmr. Reagan political aid in custody

An American couple was arrested at Schiphol on Sunday on suspicion of human smuggling. The couple accompanied a Kazakh family who flew to the Netherlands to apply for asylum. The Koninklijke Marechaussee, a policing force that works as part of the Dutch military, confirmed this on Monday after reporting by NRC.

The Marechaussee did not disclose the Americans’ identity, but according to Chinese human rights organization ChinaAid, it concerns Michael Horowitz and Devra Marcus. Horowitz was a key aid to  US president Ronald Reagan.

The American couple is in custody. The Kazakh family is entering the asylum procedure. According to ChinaAid, it concerns the wife and children of Kazakh activist Serikzjan Bilash. The human rights organization said that the Kazakhstan authorities labeled Serikzjan Bilash as a terrorist and imprisoned him for a while in 2019. He is said to have denounced the situation of Kazakhs and Uyghurs in concentration camps in China’s Xinjiang province. According to ChinaAid, the activist left Kazakhstan in 2019 and has lived apart from his family ever since.

Bob Fu, chairman of ChinaAid, called on the Dutch government on Twitter to release the American couple immediately. He called the arrests unjustified and said the couple should be rewarded for their efforts to save a Kazakh family. 

Violence broke out on a large scale in Kazakhstan last week after a sharp increase in fuel prices. At first, the protests were peaceful, but the atmosphere changed. Protesters stormed government buildings in Almaty, the country’s largest city. According to the authorities, almost 8,000 people have been arrested because of the unrest. The Central Asian country’s foreign ministry said Islamist extremists were involved in the disturbances.