Secretary of State blunders: after all no compensation for taking Ukrainians home | Inland

On Tuesday afternoon, Van der Burg said in the House of Representatives that he is consulting with the Minister of Social Affairs about ‘expense allowances for people who incur costs, for example because they take people in.’ He later added to De Telegraaf that it is ‘logical’ that such a compensation will be made. A decision on the amount would be made later this week.

‘speech confusion’

At the beginning of the evening, a spokesperson for Van der Burg reported that the statements were incorrect. It would be ‘confusion of tongues’ with the State Secretary. “These topics affect many different departments, we only learned later from the Ministry of Social Affairs that this information is not correct,” said the spokesperson.

Ukrainian refugees who end up in the Netherlands can count on living money, the spokesperson now states. “They can also use that living money to pay compensation to their host family.” The cabinet will probably make a decision this week about the level of living allowance for every Ukrainian.

In the United Kingdom, residents can claim compensation if they take Ukrainians into their homes. Britons who give shelter to a Ukrainian refugee receive 350 pounds (415 euros) per month.

Confiscate buildings

Municipalities have currently arranged about 21,000 reception places for Ukrainian refugees. That should increase to 50,000 in the near future. Van der Burg: “The security regions are supplying en masse, they are doing it really well.” He does take into account that in the long run even more reception places will be needed. “Then you are talking, for example, about the conversion of empty office buildings.”

The State Secretary indicated that it could also become necessary to confiscate buildings. Hubert Bruls, chairman of the Security Council and mayor of Nijmegen, suggested last weekend the possibility of confiscating buildings. “It may be that at some point we will choose to apply laws that you normally do not apply,” says Van der Burg. “We are preparing all kinds of scenarios, but the confiscation of buildings is not yet on the agenda.”

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