In the so-called Ukraine hub in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, RTL News spoke with refugees who have just arrived in the Netherlands. “My house is destroyed, everything is destroyed,” said Raïsa Petrivna, an elderly woman from the Bachmut region, where heavy fighting is taking place.
“I couldn’t stay there,” says Raïsa. She cries when she starts talking about her home, which is no longer there. Raïsa’s daughter had already fled to the Netherlands and picked up her mother. Almost nothing is left of the town of Bachmut, near her home.
“I am especially happy that I am now in a place where it is quiet, where I do not have to be afraid,” says 16-year-old Iryna. She fled occupied territory with her mother and brother, via Russia and Belarus. After a journey of more than two weeks, they arrived in the Netherlands. She doesn’t know yet how she will finish school.
Shelter almost full
According to the latest figures, there are now 106,000 Ukrainian refugees in the Netherlands. Hundreds more people join us every week.
The shelter for refugees squeaks and creaks on all sides. The vast majority of reception places for Ukrainians are now occupied – 99.3 percent. There are now approximately 600 beds available in emergency shelters, while new people are still being added. Municipalities therefore always have to look for new locations where they can house Ukrainians.
“If 99 percent of the places are full, it means that more reserve capacity is really urgently needed,” says Rutger Groot Wassink, chairman of the VNG’s Temporary Advisory Committee on Asylum & Migration. “Because we see that people are still fleeing the terrible war in Ukraine.”
People are still on the run
Russia still fires missiles and drones at Ukrainian cities every day, and that is why people are still fleeing. Many of them do not have a safe and suitable place to flee to within Ukraine. And so they come to the EU.
Some of the refugees come from areas that Russia has conquered. For them, the flight to safety is a long journey: they have to pass through Russian checkpoints, where they are interrogated. Russia also often checks the phones of Ukrainian refugees to see if they have made openly pro-Ukrainian statements or are in secret contact with the Ukrainian army. Adult men are monitored extra strictly and are not always allowed to leave the area.
But the more refugees there are, the more difficult it is to find suitable shelters.
State Secretary for Asylum and Migration Eric van der Burg already sounded the alarm in October to say that more places are needed to keep the influx manageable.
Places are being added gradually, just enough to keep up with the influx. But refugees continue to arrive, and the Netherlands is also struggling with an influx of asylum seekers, which requires more shelters.
Flow locations
The so-called transition locations in particular notice that it is becoming less obvious to find suitable reception places for Ukrainians. When they arrive in the Netherlands, Ukrainians first report to such a transfer location to register as refugees. The location in the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht, the so-called Ukraine hub, is by far the largest.
At the flow location, only basic facilities are available: bed, shower, food, clothing and emergency medical assistance. “If all goes well, they will be moved out again within two days,” says Paul van Koppen, location manager of the Ukraine hub in Utrecht. The refugees are then placed in reception locations throughout the country. The Ukrainians have little choice about where they are received.
“The shelter can be anything,” says Van Koppen. “These can be business premises, homes, or sometimes gyms.” It just depends on where there is room. But municipalities cannot simply place refugees anywhere: there must be good facilities, and children must be given the opportunity to go to school, for example.
“It is of course becoming increasingly difficult for the Ukraine hub to transfer people,” says Rutger Groot Wassink. “If thousands of places were added, it would make their work much easier, because transfers would then be much smoother.”
The shelter is still going well. Locations such as the Ukraine Hub can just about cope with the flow. But if thousands of beds are not added in the coming months, the reception system is likely to become clogged.
2024-01-28 15:08:05
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