Sybrand Buma knows The Hague “well enough to know that Eric has to make do with what he has”. He is referring to State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum and Migration, VVD), who is trying to arrange shelters for asylum seekers “by hanging and strangling”. But as a director, Buma can only say to Van der Burg: “This is what I can deliver, that’s all I can do.”
The former CDA party leader was appointed mayor of Leeuwarden in 2019. That also makes him the chairman of the Fryslân security region. In a security region, the province and municipalities work together in areas such as disaster and crisis management. This first became very visible during the corona crisis, when ministers met weekly with the chairmen of all 25 security regions.
In his own words, Buma only promises something when he is sure that he can keep the promise. So when Van der Burg asked the Security Council at the end of January to create 19,000 extra asylum reception places before the summer, Buma retorted that he “don’t know if I can promise it”. A roof over someone’s head is one thing, people are also needed to run things. “The government forgets that with extra money I do not immediately have a doctor.”
Municipalities that arrange shelter must also provide education and health care. At present, the government only reimburses the reception costs. Whether municipalities will also be compensated for other facilities remains unclear, according to them.
Limit
Asylum reception in the Netherlands has been at its limit for years. Year on year, more asylum seekers come to the Netherlands than the government has prepared for. The IND, which assesses asylum applications, has also been struggling with backlogs for some time. More than 30,000 asylum seekers are currently waiting for an answer. And because about 19,000 status holders (refugees with a residence permit) cannot move on to a normal home as a result of the housing crisis, hundreds of asylum seekers slept in the open air at the Ter Apel application center last summer.
The cabinet was then forced to close the stalled asylum reception national crisis explain. In concrete terms, this means that various ministers are in constant consultation with, among others, the Security Council, which is formed by the chairmen of the 25 security regions. Shortly after the national crisis was declared, the council approved the plan to arrange 450 crisis shelters per region.
Those places would first need two weeks. It quickly became clear that the crisis emergency shelter would be a matter of months. January turned into April. At the beginning of February, State Secretary Van der Burg was forced to ask the Security Council whether the crisis emergency shelter could remain open until July. This turned out to be possible in most regions. In Buma’s region ‘the contracts end just before the summer’, while recreational areas that are not used in the winter open up again for tourists. “We are doing our best to find other places, but I cannot guarantee that it will work.”
Status holders
Municipalities are normally only responsible for housing status holders. In the meantime, they also arrange the reception of displaced persons from Ukraine, ensure that the crisis emergency shelter for regular asylum seekers remains open longer than agreed and are diligently looking for structural reception locations for asylum seekers.
“During the previous refugee crisis of 2015-2016, The Hague said that we would learn from it,” says Erik van Merrienboer, mayor of Terneuzen and chairman of the Zeeland security region. “Unfortunately, we are still in the same boat.” According to him, the empty library in Terneuzen has been open as a crisis emergency shelter for far too long. Although he finds it “objectionable” that he had to inform local residents “for the third or fourth time” that the location will remain open a little longer, his hesitation is mainly about whether this is a “responsible way of housing people”.
In the Gooi en Vechtstreek security region, it was not possible to arrange 450 crisis shelter places. There the counter stops at 338. It is not unwillingness, says Gerhard van den Top, as mayor of Hilversum, chairman of the smallest security region. The region has no azc and is therefore at the bottom of the list of structural asylum reception places per region. There is a logical explanation for this, says Van den Top: “The building space is limited.” His region has “not many large locations” in which you could house a large asylum seekers’ centre.
In the past, the municipality of Laren had a large asylum seekers’ center in an old barracks, which could accommodate up to a thousand people. In 2016 there were still fifty asylum seekers, on which the COA, against the advice of mayors, decided to pull the plug. The barracks have since been demolished. There will be 590 rental and owner-occupied homes on that site.
‘This is what I can deliver, that’s all I can do’, says Sybrand Buma of the Frisian security region
According to Van Merrienboer, the fact that there are also few structural asylum reception locations in Zeeland is due to the COA, which has “never” looked at this region before. For a long time, the preference was for large reception locations. In Zeeland they prefer to work with ‘small-scale, structural care’. There is more support for smaller locations, and he notes that “thinking [van COA] now moving towards a smaller scale”.
Hans Broekhuizen, mayor of Twenterand and chairman of the Twentse asylum control table, has also noticed this. Whereas the COA previously expected ‘large locations with six hundred places’, it is now quicker to settle for reception locations of up to 150 places. “Then they want to think along.”
Hilversum mayor Van den Top points out that the Security Council is in principle not intended for asylum issues. Nor can it make decisions. “Aldermen and municipal councils must also think of it.”
In Twente, but also in other security regions, they have come up with a solution: the asylum control table. As a result, the theme of asylum is “no longer a thing of the security region,” says chairman Broekhuizen. Mayors and aldermen of the fourteen municipalities of Twente meet at least once a month for “an overview, mutual coordination and the exchange of experiences, for example about communication with municipal councils and citizens”.
Swept off the table
In exchange for temporary crisis emergency shelter, the cabinet would provide a distribution law (for a fairer distribution of asylum seekers across all municipalities) and measures that help limit the arrival of refugees. Both promises are not going well. The restriction on family reunification, which had to keep family members of status holders without a home outside the Netherlands for six months longer, was finally swept aside earlier this month – the highest administrative court at the Council of State ruled that the measure has no legal basis whatsoever. Two days before the appeal was pronounced, the advisory branch of the Council of State issued a negative advice on the distribution law: it would be too complicated and unclear.
All mayors who for this story met NRC spoke, agree: municipalities keep to agreements, the national government does not. Van Merrienboer: “Fair is fair, State Secretary Van den Burg is working hard. But is it enough? The government still lacks a clear vision, good policy.”
Broekhuizen: “In the field of asylum, the government has had everything to say over the past thirty years. Poultry and keeping wet, everything was financially controlled. Look where we are now.” As far as he is concerned, The Hague will from now on only be involved in asylum ‘in outline’, the rest should be left to the municipalities.
What the four mayors interviewed find difficult is that they do not get any clarity about the capacity problems at COA and IND, one of the causes of the reception crisis. Broekhuizen: “If we get new numbers in six months, there will be no way to compete.”
Zoning plans have not been changed just like that and municipalities prefer to follow careful processes for as much support as possible among their residents. Municipalities are also concerned about social services, such as education and health care. In Terneuzen, like many places in the Netherlands, they are struggling with a shortage of general practitioners. “At the moment we are getting help from a retired doctor, a fluke, but that is of course not a basis,” says Van Merrienboer.
No electricity at the campsite
In addition, some regions have waiting lists for connecting new reception locations to utilities such as water and electricity. For example, mayor Buma heard from a network operator that it would take six months before a campsite could be connected to the power network. Suppose the campsite had continued as a reception location, it would still not have been able to provide healthcare. Because Friesland also suffers from a shortage of general practitioners. “I see a complicated situation towards July 1,” says Buma.
In order to meet the demand to create 19,000 extra reception places for the coming summer, he believes that the facilities, including GP care, may have to be reduced. “Not to deter, but because otherwise we will not make it.”