State Secretary Eric van der Burg of Asylum and Migration wants to ensure that peace returns in Budel and Maarheeze. After that, he wants to talk to the municipality about keeping the asylum seekers center in Budel open longer. According to the state secretary, he has reached agreement with the municipality and the province. The city council wants to close the asylum seekers’ center in 2024, but the state secretary visited the municipality on Thursday in a desperate attempt to prevent that. The council doesn’t like that.
During the conversation, Mayor Roland van Kessel of the municipality of Cranendonck, to which Budel belongs, demanded that more must be done to restore peace than until now. According to the King’s Commissioner Ina Adema, who was also present, the conversation led to a ‘firm exchange of views’.
No more support
Concerns about nuisance were also discussed. According to the State Secretary, good cooperation is needed between the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), the municipality and the state.
The State Secretary indicated that he would like to see how the nuisance can be reduced. According to him, this is ‘of great importance for the support for the reception of asylum seekers’. According to the province and the council members, that support is no longer there in the municipality. Some women no longer dare to take the train because they are being harassed by asylum seekers at the station in Maarheeze. There are also complaints about shoplifting, violence and other forms of nuisance.
‘Passed station’
The city council recently decided that the asylum seekers’ center must close on 1 July 2024. The councilors do not seem to change their position, not even because of the visit of the state secretary. “That is out of the question for us,” says Carry van Rooij of Elan, Cranendonck’s largest political party. “There is no discussion about that, certainly not in its current form.”
Jordy Drieman of the VVD agrees. “It has now passed the stage. We have jointly made a decision about closing the asylum seekers’ center and we will stick to that. The government should have tackled the problems here earlier.” The CDA is also not convinced: “He may try to convince us, but we will stick to our position: we will stop with the current asylum seekers’ center,” says Peter Beelen.
In the coming period, the parties involved will continue to discuss the situation and what is needed to restore calm as quickly as possible.
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