Geert Wilders of the PVV is Tuesday evening in Bakel visiting a walk-in evening for residents about a new asylum seekers center. The intention is that three hundred asylum seekers will be located on the grounds of the care institution De Zorgboog, but there is a lot of resistance. More than 400 residents of Bakel attended the walk-in evening on Tuesday evening.
Residents of the village have started a petition, which has now been signed more than two thousand times. “In an agricultural village with 5500 inhabitants and hundreds of labor migrants, there is no longer any support for an asylum seekers’ center with at least 300 asylum seekers,” the petition reads.
Wilders says he has received many e-mails from residents and staff of the Zorgboog in which they say they are concerned.
“I understand people’s anxiety. Much is not yet clear.’
During the walk-in evening, where Wilders was welcomed with cheers by some of the residents, concerns were expressed especially about the vulnerable residents who already live on the Zorgboog site.
If there is an asylum seekers’ center with three hundred refugees, the rest they so desperately need is gone. “Then they can never take a quiet detour again”, it sounds among those present.
Not everyone thinks it is a problem that there is an asylum seekers’ center. One of the neighbors across the street thinks it is a shame that Wilders is coming to ‘heat things up’ on Tuesday. She says she does not expect any problems from the AZC.
The plan for a new asylum seekers center is still at a very early stage. “It is now a question from COA,” says a spokeswoman for the municipality of Gemert-Bakel. “We want to discuss this with our residents very early on.”
The municipality of Gemert-Bakel still has to make a decision about the arrival of the asylum seekers center. The city council has yet to vote on it. These are temporary housing units for two years. “In the meantime, new homes would be built for asylum seekers.”
One of the VVD councilors present, Anne van Berlo, says that there are still many questions in the council. “I understand the unrest of the people. A lot is not clear yet.”
De Zorgboog is an institution that provides care to people with non-congenital brain injuries, for example. People with dementia and people with a physical disability can also receive care 24 hours a day. A hospice is also located on the property.