The cabinet wants at least four large reception centers for asylum seekers, each of which can accommodate at least a thousand people. The . report that NOS and RTL News Wednesday, who viewed a letter that State Secretary Eric van den Burg (Asylum, VVD) sent to the Security Council at the beginning of this month, in which 25 mayors meet. For large-scale shelters, the cabinet is considering sports halls, ships and tents, for example. These places should provide a solution to the problems at the application center for asylum seekers in Ter Apel, where dozens of people had to sleep on chairs several times in recent weeks due to a shortage of beds.
In the letter to the Security Council, Van der Burg would write that the reception of asylum seekers is “in a crisis situation”. He has often called on municipalities – which have to arrange reception places for asylum seekers – to create more beds. With the four thousand refugees that can be accommodated according to this plan, the State Secretary wants to create “a serious buffer”. “They are emphatically temporary, and are an addition to the existing instruments.”
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‘Relief’
It is not clear whether, and if so where, the cabinet currently already has such shelters in mind. “These inventory and discussions are currently underway and preparations are being made,” Van der Burg writes in his letter. A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice & Security announced on Wednesday that it would make “no announcements” about the talks with municipalities, but confirms that the cabinet is looking at “larger-scale reception locations” that should provide “lighting” in particular in Ter Apel. The Security Council met on Tuesday evening, but a spokesperson says it was not about the large-scale locations.
The reception of large groups of asylum seekers is a sensitive issue for many municipalities. They fear nuisance comparable to that in Ter Apel and receiving asylum seekers is not always popular with residents. The cabinet wants to introduce emergency legislation to force municipalities that refuse reception to do so, but such a law is not expected to be introduced in the short term.
In order to accommodate municipalities, Van der Burg writes to the Security Council, those who arrange a large reception center receive “serious consideration”, either financially or materially. What this exactly means is unknown.
Also read this interview with mayor Han van Midden in Roosendaal: COA is only interested in ‘asylum factories’