‘Do you know the joke about the city council having to make a decision about the future of a reception ship for a thousand asylum seekers? They didn’t take it.’ For example, a bus full of Velsen-Noorders experienced the municipal council session in which a final decision was promised about the Silja Europa.
The number of visitors to Velsen’s town hall shows how much the Velsen-Noord asylum seekers issue is close to the heart: a bus with more than thirty residents crossed the North Sea Canal from the village to the town hall in IJmuiden tonight to show itself.
Before one of the men gets in, he says: “Do you think there will be a decision tonight? I have yet to see it.” He may seem very cynical, but his doubts eventually turn out to be justified.
He and the other bus passengers not only show themselves in IJmuiden, they also make themselves heard: they applaud loudly for FvD councilor Marcel Vonk, who advocates in the council chamber for people to listen to Velsen-Noord. Or at least, to the majority of the 28 percent who completed the survey on the future of the asylum ship. And they let out indignant ‘boys’ when the chairman asks them not to give these kinds of reactions in the council chamber.
Irritation and hilarity
These are two colliding worlds, that of the bus passengers from Velsen-Noord and that of the council members. The session is slow and formal. For the Velsen-Noorders who traveled along, it leads to irritation and hilarity after a short pee break after an hour and a half.
“Can I get some coffee now?” jokes one. “Well, if you repeat everything six times, I also understand that it takes a long time!”, says another with raised eyebrows of indignation. Yet another goes home already, although no decisions have been made yet: “Tomorrow half past four again…”
Another hour and a half later, just about every new council question can count on impatient stumbling from the public gallery. They don’t seem to bring the promised conclusion any closer. By that time in the evening it will also become clear that no decision will be made tonight about the future of asylum seekers in the municipality of Velsen.
Much earlier tonight, 45 minutes before the start of the council session, the public gathered in their Velsen village on the north side of the water. “Because it’s not true what happened,” says an elderly couple. “They have made a promise that the ship will remain in place until March 1 and we are going to make it clear that they must keep to that.” Incidentally, the end date of March 1 has already become April 16 so that the survey could be held.
Issues
Mayor Frank Dales will introduce the evening by sharing the ‘latest current information’ about the asylum reception in Velsen. For example, he can say that the Silja Europa has not yet found another Dutch port and could remain at the Velsen-Nordic VOB quay until July 19 under the current conditions.
Two alternative plans, in which 200 people from the Silja Europa can be accommodated on river cruise ships in IJmuiden and perhaps partly Velsen-Noord, have their own problems, so they cannot become reality easily and quickly enough.
These are the ‘new’ facts on which the Council must now base its decision on the future of asylum reception.
Compromise
Judging by the reactions in the stands, from the people who cannot or do not want to hold back, the Velsen-Noorders are already feeling the storm: somehow the council is talking to a compromise that they do not agree with agree and whereby the Silja Europa will remain in place after April 16.
Incidentally, some would also welcome that. Cees Duijn, also from Velsen-Noord, says he speaks on behalf of several companies when he calls it ‘not smart’ to send away potential good workers, while there are plenty of vacancies here in IJmond. But what he finds worse: “People keep talking about the container term ‘the ship’, which ignores the fact that it is about the people on the ship.”
Bus went back without a decision
But it won’t come to a decision tonight at all. And if it had come, most of the Velsen-Noorders who traveled with it would not have experienced it: the bus returns sharply at eleven o’clock. The meeting will then continue for an hour and a half.
Prior to this, the council argued for at least ten minutes about whether and for how long a break should be taken. “These are grown people then”, the bus passengers who head towards the exit of the town hall scorn, full of incomprehension.
A few people stay behind and arrange a lift: “Now I’m out too.” Whether they will be there again on Monday when the meeting continues, remains to be seen.