Mayor Marcel Thijsen of Tynaarlo no longer sees any benefit in emergency crisis accommodation for refugees. He calls on the government to stop the current system of emergency shelter and continue with a structural solution.
During the Radio Drenthe program Cassata the mayor uses sharp and critical words such as “impotent” and “chaos” when talking about refugee policy in the Netherlands.
Thijsen says he was called and asked to assist in the current situation in Ter Apel. The registration center there is overcrowded, which means that in recent days places such as Gieten, Stadskanaal and Groningen have taken care of the nightly reception of refugees.
“We are going to create more regular shelters than we have to according to the dispersal law. And we are no longer going to provide crisis emergency shelter. That makes everyone unhappy; the refugees and the neighborhood,” says Mayor Thijsen. With this he refers to the unrest that arose in the past due to plans for temporary reception of asylum seekers in Vries, among other places.
“We participated in emergency shelter ten years ago, we participated in emergency shelter 3.5 years ago. The neighborhood in Vries felt overwhelmed by this. In Tynaarlo, people are still in a converted warehouse. There are still seventy people in the old Flight Academy in Eelde. It could hardly be otherwise. In the meantime, we have chosen to close the emergency shelter in Paterswolde to make way for housing for seniors.”
The mayor of Tynaarlo speaks of a housing problem instead of an asylum crisis. “And that is because it is not properly anticipated. What is happening now in Ter Apel is heartbreaking. And people who have been in crisis emergency shelter for three years is not a solution either.”
Marcel Thijsen says that he and his municipality are now consciously taking matters into their own hands. “We are now working on a plan in Eelderwolde, because we do not want to be dependent on the policy of The Hague, because that changes quite a bit. Take the distribution law. One moment it is withdrawn. And this cabinet, does it want sanctions or not? That makes the soap opera.”
According to Thijsen, several things went wrong during the previous problems in Vries. Almost two years ago, the municipality of Tynaarlo abandoned a plan to accommodate 250 refugees in a new residential area in Vries-Zuid, after resistance from residents. “We have made policy based on what went wrong there. We now want small-scale asylum centers in three centers.”
But how quickly can such a small-scale shelter open its doors? “You could start quite quickly in Eelderwolde,” says Thijsen. “But Enexis needs at least a year and a half to connect that place in terms of electricity. In Zuidlaren that would take six years. Then you can say, you have a lot of time to communicate with residents. That is the only advantage.”
“In Eelderwolde we are already busy communicating with companies and residents. And of course there is a group with resistance. Despite this, an overwhelming majority is really prepared to receive refugees who are fleeing violence or personal persecution. What people are not prepared to do is to receive safelanders, although that phrase is abused,” says the mayor about the situation in Eelderwolde.
“The government has been promising to do something about this for ten years. The moment you let safelanders take legal action for three years, you have to cut a corner, then you have also solved the housing problem,” Thijsen suggests.
The mayor then also points out a practical objection: “The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) has contracts with various contractors and they are currently unable to deliver the units. We have developed such an administrative system that makes it almost impossible to arrange regular reception on time. Do something about that. That is what I refer to when I talk about impotent and chaos. Because the people in Tynaarlo, and I think also the people in the Netherlands, are really prepared to receive asylum seekers.”
