The number of status holders who have moved faster from an asylum seekers center (azc) to, for example, a flexible housing or a converted office building, is far behind the numbers in the agreements made by the cabinet. Since 1 July, only 3,040 status holders have flown from an asylum seekers’ center to a home, instead of the agreed 5,840.
This is apparent from figures from the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), which the ANP has requested. These are figures up to and including August 8. The cabinet wants 7,500 status holders from an asylum seekers’ center to have moved to their own home by mid-August.
At the end of June, the cabinet agreed this with the security regions and the parties represented in the National Migration & Integration Control Table. The COA figures show that at present only 52 percent of that agreed number has been realised.
In order to relieve the burden on the application center in Ter Apel and to get the flow of asylum seekers moving, the cabinet decided at the end of June to accelerate the out-of-home placement of 7,500 status holders. That was to be accomplished in six weeks. Almost 16,000 status holders are now forced to stay in an asylum seekers’ center because there is no regular home available for them. As a result, the flow in asylum seekers’ centers is halted and the situation in Ter Apel also remains untenable.
Those 7,500 status holders should be given their own home through flexible housing and, for example, converted office buildings and nursing homes, State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) and Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing) explained at the end of June.
The cabinet has released 100 million euros for this, to increase the construction production of flexible housing from 5000 to 7500 this year and to make existing buildings suitable for habitation. A third of the new flex homes and the buildings transformed into homes are allocated to status holders or Ukrainians, says a spokesperson for De Jonge.
These flexible housing units are not only intended for status holders, but also for other emergency seekers such as recently divorced people or the homeless. 3100 new flex homes have now been built, the spokesperson said.