A total of 2,691 reception places for asylum seekers must be arranged in Drenthe over the next two years. This is clear from the elaboration of the dispersal law, which was adopted by the Senate last week.
The 2,691 shelter places are not extra beds. Existing shelter may be deducted from the provincial statement.
The law is intended to relieve the burden on the registration center in Ter Apel and will come into effect tomorrow. Under the law, municipalities can be forced to receive asylum seekers. In total, provinces and municipalities must jointly arrange 96,000 reception places for asylum seekers this year. The distribution is based on the number of inhabitants and how rich a municipality is.
The overview shows that relatively few additional childcare places are expected from Drenthe. The numbers are comparable in Groningen, Friesland, Flevoland and Zeeland.
The provinces of South and North Holland and North Brabant face a greater challenge. South Holland must create almost 20,000 shelter places, North Holland more than 16,000 and North Brabant just under 15,000. For years they have been receiving fewer asylum seekers than is asked of them.
Each province has until November 1 to arrange this provincial task with its municipalities. The provincial reception plans must then be submitted to the Ministry of Justice and Security. A municipality can indicate that it does not want to accommodate asylum seekers, but does, for example, accept status holders and/or Ukrainian refugees. Municipalities can ‘exchange’ each other as long as the requested reception places are arranged at the bottom of the line per province.
The indicative distribution is important for the possible financial bonus that municipalities can receive if they arrange more shelter places. Municipalities can receive 1,000 to 2,000 euros from the ministry for each additional place that is available for at least five years.
The State Secretary for Justice will assess all twelve plans before January 1. If provinces have provided sufficient places, municipalities have six months to realize them. In provinces without a good plan, the State Secretary intervenes. Through a so-called distribution decision, he obliges municipalities to arrange a certain number of shelter places.
If that also yields insufficient results, the Ministry of Justice will ultimately arrange the places in a municipality itself. This ‘coercion’ will not be used until a year at the earliest.
Check here how many asylum seekers your municipality should receive in total: