The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) will itself approach municipalities to accommodate more status holders. The implementing agency reported this in an email on Monday message on your own site. Municipalities that house less than 30 percent of the numbers of status holders requested by the government can be called by COA directors, civil servants or ministers from the Ministries of Justice and Security and Home Affairs with the request to house more people with asylum status. COA does not reveal which 45 municipalities are involved.
Housing asylum seekers with a residence permit is a task of municipalities, which are supervised by provinces. There are currently many municipalities that have fallen far behind in receiving status holders. The registration center in Ter Apel and other COA locations are overcrowded, partly due to the stagnant flow.
By approaching so-called ‘refusal municipalities’, COA hopes to have five hundred additional status holders leave their own reception locations every week. If a municipality cannot find housing, status holders can be accommodated in temporary accommodation or a hotel. The status holders could also be accommodated in a nearby municipality.
COA board chairman Milo Schoenmaker says in the press release that he is pleased with this extra measure. “With the accelerated housing of status holders, places will become available at our reception locations and that is desperately needed. We need to return to a more normal reception situation and occupancy at our locations and this approach can make an important contribution to that.”
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