Once again Amsterdam comes to the aid of the government in the reception of refugees. 650 asylum seekers can go to an empty office building in Sloterdijk. According to responsible alderman Rutger Groot Wassink, we must take into account that the city will receive structurally more refugees in the coming years.
From the end of next year, some 650 refugees will be accommodated in the Einstein building in West. “For at least ten years and possibly with an extension,” says alderman Rutger Groot Wassink (Reception).
More than 3,200 refugees and status holders are currently being received in Amsterdam. There are four temporary reception locations and there is the asylum seekers center on the Willinklaan in Osdorp.
The 25 mayors of the Security Council have announced that they will stop coordinating crisis emergency care as of 1 July.
‘Temporary hassle’
Groot Wassink understands that. “Because crisis emergency shelter is actually only good for temporary shelter. Of course you have to move towards a stable landscape in which you have fixed locations where people can always stay. That temporary hassle is not getting along. I think it is right that the Security Council has said ‘We really need to get rid of that’. But we, as Amsterdam, are of course also responsible for the reception locations we open, in consultation with, for example, the COA (Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers).”
Amsterdam is making some thirty million euros available for the reception and support of refugees. Groot Wassink: “That will certainly be for the next few years, but I think we should take into account that the issue will remain in the coming decades.”