The municipality of Maashorst will receive a maximum of 300 asylum seekers for a maximum of three years in the Van der Valk Hotel in Uden. The alternative shelter should open in October. Other guests will then no longer be able to stay in the hotel. The city council announced this on Friday.
The municipality of Maashorst had been looking for a good place to receive asylum seekers for some time. “Preferably a permanent and structural place,” says acting mayor Rianne Donders. “That search was underway, but we did not yet know what it would yield.”
In the meantime, Van der Valk himself approached the municipality that they want to make the hotel available to receive asylum seekers there. “An opportunity arose that I had not expected,” says Donders. “Yes, a hotel disappears for a while, but it does solve a problem.”
Then back to hotel
Over the next three years, a maximum of 300 asylum seekers will come to the hotel on the outskirts of Uden next to the Bernhoven hospital. The whole hotel is used for it. “The hotel is a suitable place,” says the acting mayor. “A lot of facilities are already there.”
It has been agreed that the asylum seekers will stay for a maximum of three years. After that, the building will be used as a hotel again. “The hotel is important to us,” says Donders. “For example for tourism, it is a meeting location and people who have someone in the hospital stay. We really want that function back.”
Information evenings
Local residents were informed earlier in the day and invited to an information meeting. There will be a private information evening for those living in the immediate vicinity on Monday. After the summer there will be information evenings for the wider area.
There are more places in Brabant where Van der Valk receives or has received asylum seekers. Such as at Meerwijk Castle in Den Bosch, Hotel Nuland and in a hotel near Cuijk. Asylum seekers also stay in Van der Valk hotels in other places in the Netherlands.