A cruise ship will arrive in Velsen-Noord. Van der Burg does not want to say which other locations are being considered. He expects the first cruise ship in the course of August.
buy up
In addition, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) will continue to buy up possible locations for asylum reception, even if they do not yet have a residential destination. By making it easier to buy old vacant hotels, for example, Van der Burg wants to relieve the pressure on the asylum chain.
The Ministry of Defense will also be looking at potential locations.
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Distribution of Ukrainians
In addition to making buildings more readily available, Van der Burg also wants to distribute Ukrainians across the country differently. There are municipalities that do want to free up reception capacity for this group, but not for other refugees.
By accommodating as many Ukrainians as possible in those places, space is freed up in municipalities that it makes no difference whether they receive Ukrainians or asylum seekers.
overcrowded
The government has been trying for a long time to tackle the problems in asylum reception. The conditions at the application center in Ter Apel were reason for the cabinet to regard the asylum reception as a crisis.
The application center in Ter Apel has been overcrowded for a long time, partly because the flow of people with a residence permit from reception centers to homes has stagnated.
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Large-scale reception
Partly for this reason, large-scale reception areas on cruise ships were initially announced. But the municipality of Vlissingen withdrew the decision more than a week ago. The council was initially in favour, but there was resistance among residents and the city council also did not like the plan. As a result, the mayor and aldermen feel ‘insufficiently supported to take such a major decision’.
The municipality of Velsen is still prepared to have a cruise ship dock so that asylum seekers can be accommodated there for six months.
Municipalities will soon be obliged to cooperate
Municipalities will soon be obliged to cooperate in the reception of asylum seekers. The cabinet will regulate this in law and will present a bill to this effect after the summer. If all goes well, the law will come into effect in January of the new year.
The government is thinking of two ways. For example, it can ask provinces to receive a certain number of asylum seekers who will arrange this together with the municipalities. They can make a decision about that, says Van der Burg. Another variant is that the wishes of the cabinet are discussed in the province, the province then indicates the options for this to the State Secretary, who then makes a decision.
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