ANP
–
NOS News•yesterday, 23:04
—
The cabinet is requesting the security regions to create more than 5,600 extra crisis emergency shelters for asylum seekers. These places come on top of the 5500 extra crisis shelter places that were requested earlier, of which 5000 have now been realised.
–
According to State Secretary Van der Burg (Asylum), the reason is that it is difficult to accommodate status holders and the chain is therefore clogged. Moreover, the influx of asylum seekers is still high.
–
The cabinet therefore also wants empty reception places for Ukrainians to be used for emergency reception of regular asylum seekers in the coming period.
–
“We understand that we are asking a lot of questions from the security regions with this, especially because so many efforts have already been made in many places to receive asylum seekers and refugees,” says a spokesperson for the state secretary. “But it is now really necessary to prevent people sleeping on the street.”
–
Structural decisions
Mayor Hubert Bruls van Nijmegen, as chairman of the Security Council, does not yet want to respond substantively on behalf of the security regions. A spokesperson says that consultations are still ongoing and he wants to wait until there is more clarity.
–
The security regions said earlier that they believed that the cabinet should take structural decisions about asylum policy in the Netherlands as soon as possible. That is the message of the 25 mayors who met in the Security Council tonight.
–
This concerns, among other things, the deportation policy of aliens who are not allowed to stay in the Netherlands and the strengthening of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). If no decisions are made about this, the reception of refugees will stall even further than it is now, according to the mayors.
–
“The security regions have now realized 5000 of the more than 5500 additional emergency shelters requested. But the situation at the application center in Ter Apel is still inhumane and undesirable. And the long-term vision is not yet there,” said chairman Bruls.
–
Not a task for municipalities
The mayors said earlier that they wanted to cooperate with extra crisis emergency care until October 1 at the most, because that is actually not a task of municipalities, but of the central government.
–
The State Secretary promises to continue discussions about crisis relief within the cabinet, with the security regions and the municipalities.
—
