A group of asylum seekers who are currently being accommodated in the Van der Valk hotel along the A4 in Haarlemmermeer will soon have to make way for conference attendees. The conferences are important to the hotel because they are the first major events since the corona period.
That is what director Bill van der Valk of Hotel Schiphol A4 – as the hotel is officially called – tells in conversation with NH Nieuws, and is confirmed by the municipality. The reception of the two hundred asylum seekers is an initiative of the hotel, which is thus trying to lend a helping hand to the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), which is plagued by lack of capacity.
Congresses in the agenda
However, that offer is not unlimited, explains hotel director Van der Valk. “There will soon be a few conferences that have been on the agenda for a long time,” he says. That is why he will soon be unable to accommodate the group of asylum seekers in his hotel for two weeks.
The conferences are important for the hotel, because they are the first major events since the corona crisis, which has also seriously affected the hotel industry. Van der Valk does not yet know where the asylum seekers will be received in those weeks, but it should not come as a surprise to COA, he emphasizes. “Fortunately, that was communicated well in time.”
“It’s about a group that was transferred from place to place”
The COA cannot answer that question either, and refers it to the Kennemerland Safety Region. That, in turn, refers to the district council of Haarlem, where NH Nieuws is told that we should be at the municipality of Haarlemmermeer after all.
Alternative emergency shelter
“It concerns a group that was transferred from place to place,” said a municipal spokesperson. “That’s why the hotel has offered the people to relax in the hotel, but the owner needs the rooms for other guests.”
The spokesperson also knows that alternative emergency care has now been arranged. “In another hotel in Haarlemmermeer.” After August 8, the group is welcome again in the hotel along the A4 that has a toucan as its logo.