The cabinet is calling on provinces and municipalities to create more reception places for asylum seekers. There should also be more homes for status holders, so that they can leave asylum seekers’ centers.
Due to the evacuees from Afghanistan, among other things, the locations of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) are in danger of becoming full within a few weeks, state secretary Broekers-Knol and Minister Ollongren write in a letter to municipalities and provinces. Of the 29,000 places COA has, 27,000 are now occupied.
If it is not possible to create more places for asylum seekers, or to find housing so that people who already have a residence permit can move on, crisis shelter is the only solution that remains, the two write. “You can think of the local reception of people at temporary locations that are not intended for that.”
Unwanted pressure
The cabinet prefers not to do that, because locally it leads to “unwanted pressure on society”. It is feared that this could reduce support for the reception of asylum seekers. “We therefore want to avoid this extremely undesirable scenario together with you.”
Afghan evacuees are currently being accommodated in emergency locations in various places. That led yesterday in Harskamp in Gelderland all kinds of protest, where fires were set and people shouted nationalistic slogans.
Incidentally, it is not only the situation in Afghanistan that leads to more asylum seekers. The conditions in Lebanon, Belarus and Turkey also contribute. In addition, many so-called relatives are reporting, the outgoing ministers write. “They were previously unable to travel due to international travel restrictions related to Covid-19.” Relatives are people who come to the Netherlands as part of family reunification.
Ollongren and Broekers-Knol ask the provinces to come up with ideas by the second week of September at the latest.
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