Asylum policy has stalled. The Northern Netherlands bears the heaviest burden of this and that is not fair.
It is now a year ago that asylum seekers were lying in the grass in front of the entrance to the application center in Ter Apel. The fact that no people have to spend the night in the open air there today can perhaps be seen as a benefit. But otherwise all signals are red in the asylum policy and Ter Apel, Nieuw-Weerdinge, Emmen and Groningen bear a disproportionately high burden.
Inflow not under control
The Netherlands does not have the influx of refugees under control, State Secretary Eric van der Burg acknowledged last week in the House of Representatives and confirmed this again on TV this weekend. Immigration Service IND and the Aliens Police can handle 22,000 applications annually, while 77,000 are expected this year. According to Van der Burg, more people simply do not want to work at the IND, so there is no prospect of a solution.
A small part of this group causes nuisance in Ter Apel, Nieuw-Weerdinge, in the train from Zwolle to Emmen and the bus there. The government does not know what to do with this group of ‘safe-landers’ who actually have no chance at all of asylum status because they are not really fleeing war or persecution. There is extra supervision in Ter Apel and Nieuw-Weerdinge, but that is mopping with the tap open.
Many other municipalities refuse shelter
The asylum centers and emergency shelters are now overcrowded. There is still absolutely no prospect of a second application centre, the necessary additional temporary accommodation and the flow of recognized refugees to homes. Groningen, Zuidbroek, Assen and other places in our region have acted responsibly by accepting asylum seekers, but most municipalities in the rest of the country refuse. That is why the dispersion law is necessary. Due to political division, however, that law has not even been discussed in the House of Representatives.
One of the main causes of this stalled policy is the division in the cabinet. Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Van der Burg hope that the solution will come from Europe, but that is also not getting along at all. It is to become despondent.