The places will be in buildings of the Central Government Real Estate Agency, such as government office buildings or old prisons. The cabinet has reserved 75 million euros to make the buildings suitable as shelters.
In the coming weeks, the buildings must be prepared to receive people. The buildings are then made available to municipalities, who will further arrange the reception.
Big shortage
According to State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum), there are currently 17,000 Ukrainian refugees in the Netherlands, and that number is steadily increasing. “We also receive signals from other countries, for example Germany and the border countries, that people continue to come from Ukraine,” said Van der Burg.
The government thinks that hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians could come to the Netherlands. If the war continues for a long time, they may continue to live in the Netherlands for years.
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The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) is struggling with a major shortage of reception places for asylum seekers. The organization needs 42,000 places to accommodate every asylum seeker. According to the latest calculation, 40,472 places are available on April 1.
This means that in a week’s time there are still 1528 places to be found. Several municipalities are expanding their reception locations, or keeping them open for longer, in order to reduce the shortage.
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