The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) may purchase buildings to accommodate people, even if they are not yet in the correct destination. By making it easier to buy old vacant hotels, for example, the government hopes to relieve the pressure on the asylum chain.
That is what State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) said today after crisis consultations. The cabinet has taken four decisions tonight, Van der Burg said after the consultation. In addition to making buildings more easily available, whereby the Minister Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing) will be given “perseverance power”, according to the State Secretary, Van der Burg also wants to distribute Ukrainians across the country differently.
There are reception locations “of which municipalities have indicated: we want to receive Ukrainians there, but not regular asylum seekers”. By housing as many Ukrainians as possible in those places, space is freed up in municipalities that it makes no difference whether they receive Ukrainians or asylum seekers.
The cabinet has also taken a new step with the reception of people on three cruise ships, which has been worked on for a long time. “We have now said, the ships are just going to sail towards the Netherlands. Let them come this way, so that we do not lose time.” One of the three ships arrives in Velsen. It is still unclear where the two other ships will go. For example, from September 3,000 people should be able to be accommodated.
One of the options is that the cruise ships will remain at sea. Whether and how this is possible, says Van der Burg, is still under investigation. He also asked the Ministry of Defense whether they still have room for reception on their sites.
Van der Burg praised the municipalities for the work they have done to realize crisis shelters. At the moment they are still about 2,000 beds away from their goal of more than 5,500 reception places. The State Secretary expects these to be completed in August.
The large crowds in Ter Apel, where a growing group of people sleep outside in the grass, will continue for at least two weeks, he says. Only then does the State Secretary expect to be able to assist at a second, as yet unknown location.
The measures that have now been announced will not be enough to remove the problems in the asylum chain, Van der Burg acknowledged. This is mainly because it is not yet sufficiently successful in allowing people who are allowed to stay in the Netherlands, so-called status holders, to move on from reception to a home. There are now 15,000 status holders in the asylum seekers’ centers. Van der Burg believes that municipalities should also cooperate to realize this throughput.