Fewer young people are present than on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, when spontaneous counter-actions were held. A banner that has often been criticized on social media with the text ‘Keep Albergen clean’ has since been removed. In its place, four new banners have been hung with texts such as “There is no place for AOW people here, this cabinet prefers asylum seekers” and “A cozy village with 3000 neighbours, you cannot send 300 asylum seekers there. .”
Later in the evening two boys brought a sign with the text “With 300 asylum seekers of color soon in Albergen rape, robbery and terror!” Bystanders immediately intervened. According to one of the bystanders, that is not the message that the inhabitants of Albergen want to convey. “We are against the arrival of an asylum seekers center of this size, but certainly not against foreigners. We immediately approached the guys who brought this plate.” The sign was visible for a few seconds, but was immediately removed.
Like ‘clash of thunder’
On Thursday evening, party chairman Joost Eerdmans of JA21 also came to Albergen, where he made an appointment with a village delegation and the municipal executive to support the local population. ,,We endorse the aversion to this decision and are on the side of the residents”, Eerdmans said shortly before the meeting. He also indicated that he understands that the arrival of asylum seekers to the hotel has “smashed in like a thunderbolt.” “The government and COA are sidelining local democracy. This sets an enormous and unprecedented precedent. Action must now be taken differently, namely with a brake on immigration,” the politician said.
Pieter Omtzigt had also come to a private meeting in Albergen on Thursday evening. ,,A number of residents have asked me to come and as a member of parliament I do that”, explains Omtzigt. “The State Secretary should actually come to Albergen to explain this far-reaching decision. It is unheard of that this has not yet happened.” Omtzigt has now put 18 written questions to the State Secretary about the matter. He wants to know, among other things, when COA bought the property and when the municipality was informed about this. He also wants COA’s license application for an asylum seekers’ center to be made public.
Spontaneous run-up
On Tuesday it was announced that the cabinet wants to force the municipality to receive asylum seekers in the hotel, but there is a lot of resistance. As a result, a spontaneous run-up arose at the building on Tuesday evening. “That’s not how you treat people,” Mayor Wilmien Haverkamp said on Wednesday about the intention to impose the reception “from above”. According to State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum), the coercive measure is necessary, since more space is needed for refugees in the Netherlands because the reception center in Ter Apel has been completely full for a long time.
“We are losing our cozy village due to mismanagement”
According to the COA, three hundred asylum seekers can be accommodated in Albergen. The residents think that is too much. “Democracy has lost if the Netherlands does not make itself heard,” one of the banners reads. And: “Due to mismanagement, we lose our cozy village.”