Cranendonck will talk to COA and Rijk about closing azc Budel

In the coming months, the municipality of Cranendonck will hold talks with State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) and the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) about the future of the azc in Budel. The municipality wants the AZC to leave there. It should be clear in October how all parties involved stand in this, said alderman Hennie Driessen van Cranendonck on Tuesday evening during an information evening for the city council.

The starting point for these talks is a residents’ survey, which showed that there is no longer any support in Budel for the current azc with 1500 reception places, due to the great nuisance it causes. Last year, the city council unanimously decided that the AZC should close on 1 July 2024.

But the COA will soon be applying for a permit for the site again, the alderman announced on Tuesday evening. That would mean that the COA wants to stay there longer. The revelation sparked outrage among the parties present.

Nuisance
Is the COA not aware of the report presented two weeks ago, which states that the support is lacking, council members wondered. They pointed to the nuisance, which increases as the weather gets nicer.

Driessen said that the talks are also explorations of how the State Secretary and COA think about it. Those talks should actually be completed before the end of June, but that will not work, says Driessen. He thinks that it will not be clear until October at the earliest how everyone sees the future. But council members foresee chaos if the COA submits an application for a new permit for the azc before then.

Closure
Driessen emphasized that the residents’ survey is leading in the talks between the municipality and the government and COA. From the council, a plea was made to stick to the previously adopted motion, which prescribes closure as of 1 July next year.

ttn-32