News item | 24-03-2023 | 13:45
On the recommendation of State Secretary Van der Burg (Justice and Security), the Council of Ministers has approved the bill that ensures sufficient asylum reception with a more balanced distribution across the country. The legislative proposal ‘Municipal Tasks Enabling Asylum Reception Act’ will be submitted to the House of Representatives for consideration.
The bill consists of two phases to achieve sufficient reception places. Firstly, a phase in which municipalities receive a benefit if sustainable shelters are made possible. This involves a minimum of 100 places in a municipality that are available for 5 years.
If the total supply in this phase does not meet the required number of places, municipalities will allocate the remaining places at a provincial level under the statutory task. Municipalities are given scope for solutions that work in local practice.
With various benefits in both phases, the government wants to encourage municipalities to voluntarily offer places for asylum reception. Municipalities are free to spend these benefits.
This bill makes it more attractive for municipalities to invest in reception locations that are available for a longer period of time. In this way, extra reception capacity will gradually become available.
The proposal ensures a better distribution of reception places across the Netherlands. It does not mean that shelters will be available in all municipalities. Municipalities make agreements within their provinces about who does what. This could mean, for example, that one municipality takes care of asylum reception and another municipality houses status holders.