Brabant must immediately receive more status holders and refugees than is already the case. This is necessary for a short- and long-term solution to the asylum crisis in our country, reports Mayor Theo Weterings of Tilburg. He is hopeful that all governments in the province have sufficient political will to comply with the wishes of the cabinet.
Weterings speaks on behalf of his colleagues in the three safety regions in Brabant. He realizes that they cannot ignore the request of the cabinet to think along and work. In practice, this means that every security region, including those outside our province, must start housing not 225 but 450 refugees. Moreover, spread over the entire country, more than 20,000 status holders must be given a home this year. Starting next week, municipalities will look at how they can distribute housing across the province.
Tough but not impossible
A difficult, but not impossible task, in the eyes of Weterings: “In Tilburg we already accommodate more status holders than we are obliged to.” Elsewhere, that might be possible as well. Weterings emphasizes that the distribution of reception places must be coordinated and that this is already happening. He points out that this is not only the responsibility of the municipalities and the security regions, but also of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) and the province.
Weterings also finds it important that there should not only be political willingness and agreement. People living in the vicinity of (potential) shelters must be involved at an early stage. Also because they see how non-status holders often have to wait long(er) for housing. According to Weterings, a solution to this problem can be sought in ‘collective housing facilities’, locations where residence is not only offered to beneficiaries. “But also,” Weterings clarifies, “to young people and other home seekers, such as people who have to leave a house after a divorce.” ‘Larger buildings’ could be renovated for this.
Hope pinned on flex homes
Weterings also hopes that there will be more room for flexible housing: houses that can be built quickly. “I know that in practice the construction of these houses often takes a lot of time. Now it should be the case that fewer rules are needed for this,” says Weterings. He is also pleased that the cabinet has not only asked the municipalities to be hospitable, but has presented them with more than a sausage. More money and resources will become available, the mayors are assured.
Due to the asylum crisis, almost un-Dutch scenes have been taking place in Ter Apel for weeks. Things are so inhumane at the application center in the Groningen village that MSF had to provide medical assistance for the first time in our country this week. Can this situation be prevented by restricting the influx?
Weterings: “This has also been discussed, but the decision-making in this area is not up to the municipalities, but to the cabinet and the House of Representatives. I understand that measures have been announced to limit, for example, the travel after family members.”
Also money to tackle crime
Incidentally, not for the first time, the government is also investing millions in tackling another outgrowth of the asylum crisis: the nuisance caused by criminal refugees.
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