Mayor Roland van Kessel of the municipality of Cranendonck sent an urgent letter to State Secretary Van der Burg on Thursday about the problems in the azc in Budel. The cabinet fell the next day. So the mayor can whistle for help, you would think. But he holds out hope. “The State Secretary said that he will be ready again on Monday, also to solve the nuisance here.”
Mayor Van Kessel thinks that is no more than logical, he said on Sunday in the television program KRAAK at Omroep Brabant. “Even a demissionary secretary of state still has responsibilities and tasks that he can perform.”
And help from The Hague to improve the situation around the asylum seekers’ center in Budel is badly needed, says the mayor. Because he himself is now empty-handed. There’s nothing more he can do. “What I can do, I have done. More police or more enforcement, that will not solve the problem.”
“I call every day not to take matters into your own hands.”
Last week the extent of the problems in Maarheeze became clear once again. For example, it turned out that the Jumbo shopkeeper in Maarheeze stops and transfers his business because of the nuisance caused by asylum seekers. Destruction was done at a memorial wall in a cemetery. And the NS decided to send security guards on the train between Eindhoven and Weert because there is too often a threat and nuisance at Maarheeze station.
Residents of the village told Omroep Brabant that the atmosphere is ‘grim’ and that ‘something needs to be done before the fire hits the pan’. Annoying to hear, says the mayor. He hopes it doesn’t come to that. “Every day I call on people not to take matters into their own hands and to keep faith in the police and enforcement.”
While at the same time he also sees that the police and enforcement cannot handle it. “I think the number of residents of the azc is much too large,” says Van Kessel. “Then you can’t keep it manageable.”
“The group that is here now is really too big.”
In his urgent letter he did not tell the State Secretary what to do. That’s up to him. Of course the mayor has a clear idea about it. “The cake must be divided. The group that is here is now really too large. That is impossible. It cannot be the case that a small municipality alone bears that burden. If you spread this group across the country, then keep you manage it.”
The mayor feels powerless, because he no longer has the tools to tackle the problem. At the same time, he remains hopeful. “I also have to keep hope, for our residents.”
He has often called on fellow municipalities to also organize shelter. And the fact that the government is now asking all municipalities to arrange asylum reception also helps. “I am confident that locations will be added in the near future with which we can better distribute the asylum seekers.”
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