According to a spokeswoman, the Central and West Brabant Security Region is well prepared for both short-term crisis relief and medium-term relief from two months to a year. “More and more new places are being added, which we are preparing for the arrival of refugees.” Breda, for example, has a crisis shelter for two hundred refugees for a maximum of 72 hours. Thousands of people can already find temporary shelter in the region. Another thousand places will be added next week.
The MECC in Maastricht can handle 400 refugees, but the influx is still limited. Saturday around noon there were eight people. There were 24, but sixteen have already left for places where they can go longer. An additional 55 refugees are expected for temporary shelter during the day.
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‘Takes time’
The Rotterdam-Rijnmond region can receive refugees in the Wielewaal sports hall, which has 250 beds for short-term shelter. On Sunday, another 150 women and children are expected to arrive in a sports hall in Ridderkerk. “Most with buses from Poland, but some also with other transport from Ter Apel or through the mediation of the municipality,” said the spokesman for this region.
Municipalities are also making every effort to find emergency shelters. For example, two hundred refugees can go to the former army barracks in Weert. On Sunday evening, 25 refugees arrive in Kapelle, where eight apartments have been prepared and there is room at a fruit grower. Geleen receives three hundred refugees in a sports center, Venlo has room for dozens of Ukrainians in a former nursing home. “We have to meet the demand for two thousand places,” said a spokesman for the North and East Gelderland Security Region. “The search is in full swing.”
“Finding two thousand places takes time,” acknowledges the spokesman for Rotterdam-Rijnmond. “Rotterdam is working on ships for the accommodation of three hundred people. In the meantime, we take into account that it will not stop at those two thousand. That requires different solutions. We are already thinking about that.”