According to State Secretary Van der Burg (Asylum), such horse resources are not yet necessary. “Confiscation of properties is not an issue at the moment. But if more than 50,000 places are needed, emergency legislation will be looked into.” The minister says that existing laws will then be dusted off to make that happen. “That could possibly play a role in more than 50,000 in the future.”
About 25,000 places have now been made available. The same number should be added. “I have every confidence that they can be realized without any means of power,” says Van der Burg. “I am not at all concerned that the regions will also make it to the second 25,000.”
Deploy government real estate
Nevertheless, the cabinet takes into account much more than 50,000 reception places, in which case hard means of power would therefore be possible. Van der Burg says that he would like to discuss this with the House of Representatives. He therefore wants to use government real estate.
The House of Representatives is mainly concerned about the long-term reception and redistribution of refugees. Various parties mention far-reaching measures, such as seizing real estate or collecting refugees from other countries such as Poland.
D66, CDA and PvdA, among others, aim to redistribute refugees in order to relieve Ukraine’s neighboring countries. The VVD wants to wait with that because, according to the party, it is necessary to wait and see how many refugees come to the Netherlands on their own.
‘Limits reached’
“The limits of our reception capacity are being reached,” warns VVD MP Brekelmans. “It already takes a lot of effort to find thousands more places.” So-called ‘relocation’ within the EU is not an issue for his party. “Nobody knows how many Ukrainians are still coming out of their own accord. We might go over 50,000, maybe 150,000.”
Moreover, he finds relocation only acceptable in the long run if all EU countries participate, if structural agreements are made about transit through the EU and if all asylum seekers are taken into account. CDA MP Kuik does feel in favor of relocation and emphasizes that the limits in terms of reception have been reached in other countries. According to State Secretary Van der Burg (Asylum), there is currently no demand for the redistribution of refugees from Ukraine across Europe.
Seizing private real estate to accommodate refugees is also an option for part of the House of Representatives. “It is a very last option to confiscate private property,” says Brekelmans. “In a refugee crisis, people may end up sleeping on the street. I can imagine that the cabinet is looking at emergency measures.” GL MP Kröger and SP MP Van Dijk call on the cabinet to urgently develop scenarios for the longer term.
Not only shelters for Ukrainians are scarce. Van der Burg acknowledges that there is also a need for asylum reception, even though Ukrainians do not normally end up there now. “Hat in hand, I go to city councils with the request: help us. You can also help by asking party members to relieve Ter Apel. Because it is really necessary.”