What’s new in 2022 has been dominated by problems. There is a lot that can be improved in the new year. So this series of end-of-year stories is about solutions. Today part 1: How Ukrainians and other refugees accidentally met in Oss and inspired other municipalities.
Suddenly, one evening in April, eighty refugees from the overcrowded Ter Apel reception center were sitting in the canteen of the town hall in Oss, Brabant. A mistake by the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), which thought that the old tax office in Lievekamplaan was still empty.
But there Angelo Schuurmans has already given refuge to Ukrainian refugees with his organization Thuis in Oss. “Then I said to the Ukrainians: ‘Now eighty people are coming.’ Then they got out of bed, helped welcome people and took them to their rooms,” says Schuurmans. Because there was still enough space.
Thuis in Oss, together with the AOC, hosts 330 people in the old tax office. Just over half of the inhabitants are from Ukraine, the rest from other countries. This is unique, because the government and municipalities have so far adhered to the policy of accommodating groups separately.
Municipalities are responsible for the reception of Ukrainians and the AOC for other refugees. And while the AOC shelter became overcrowded and people even had to sleep outside, there was still room for a lot of time in places where Ukrainians were welcomed.
“While here we’ve been saying for nine months: ‘It’s not necessary at all. It goes well together,'” says Schuurmans. The shelter’s location has remained “accident-free” since its inception. The municipality is so satisfied that in October it will open a new office outside the city.
Other municipalities are also starting to look at mixed housing, says Schuurmans. “They’re very interested. You notice that people with this asylum system are really looking for new ways to do it better.”
‘Coexistence with different cultures is instructive’
Until closure in October 2023, refugees will remain in the old tax office. The somewhat gray multi-story building has since been enlivened by many murals. During a walk through the building, Schuurmans shows his favorite: the one near the shop where residents can buy things. The drawing of the woman’s head was made by a Ukrainian and colored in by a Syrian resident.
In her room in one of the external housing units, Ukrainian Iryna Troskot talks about how instructive she finds living with different cultures. For example, Troskot talked to a woman in one of the complex’s communal kitchens. While their children played together, the women talked about the dishes they were preparing: something Ukrainian and an African dish. “It was so tasty,” says Troskot. “I immediately wanted to know how to make it myself.”
Troskot has been living with Thuis in Oss for several months after she fled Irpin with her son. Here she represents Ukrainian residents in the weekly council of residents. In this council, representatives of all groups of residents talk about the rules of the house, the activities and the problems they encounter.
Troskot himself has just returned from a consultation on lighting fireworks on New Year’s Eve. Preferably not on the site itself, Troskot says, because they hear enough explosions in Ukraine.
Distinction between gratings of refugees
Anyone who passes through the Oss reception center sees no difference between the Ukrainian and the other residents. Children play together in the long corridors or in one of the many sitting rooms. People chat to each other outside and there are announcements of activities at the entrance, which can also be read in Arabic and Ukrainian.
But there is a legal distinction. This has to do with the temporary protection that the European Union has granted to Ukrainians. And because the Netherlands has used the state emergency law, the municipalities have been obliged to set up a sufficient number of reception places. As a result, Ukrainians, unlike asylum seekers, have been able to start work and build a life relatively quickly.
The court has already called the distinction between Ukrainians and other refugees “unauthorized”. But the difference is likely to be rectified if the new distribution law is passed, according to the court.
This distinction can also be seen every morning in Oss. There, Ukrainians go out en masse at 7 in the morning for work, while the other residents stay at home more often. They are not allowed to work.
Sharp contrast with the reception crisis
The special rules for Ukrainians stand in stark contrast to the reception problem, which has hit an all-time low this year. People have been sleeping outside the application center in Ter Apel or staying in emergency (crisis) shelters for months. And although the beds for Ukrainians are now almost full, until recently there were unused beds in these reception places.
Peter Rodrigues, a professor of immigration law at Leiden University, has reservations about this distinction. He wonders whether the European directive could not have been used even when many Syrians applied for protection in the EU in 2015. The Netherlands also could have reconsidered using the state emergency law this summer. “You may wonder if there wasn’t the same need when people had to sleep outside in Ter Apel.”
In Thuis in Oss, all residents feel “like one family,” says Syrian Amajdi Koudimati in one of the alcoves on the ground floor. He fled Syria five months ago and ended up in Oss after four different shelters. Not only did Koudimati come here to rest, but so did all the other residents, he says. “They all come from a war. We came here to live in peace. All.”
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