Municipalities discriminate in the reception of refugees by distinguishing between people from Ukraine and asylum seekers from other countries. This is prohibited, says the Netherlands Institute for Human Rights (CvdRM), that Friday a call to State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum and Migration, VVD). The council hopes that he will enter into discussions with municipalities about equal reception.
Van der Burg wants to allow municipalities to receive Ukrainians, but not other asylum seekers. This is to make more space available in other municipalities for asylum seekers from other countries. In this way, the cabinet offers scope for prohibited discrimination, according to the commission. Although Ukrainian refugees have a special status, their situation is similar to that of other asylum seekers: they are ‘displaced people’ who ‘need protection because of their vulnerable situation’. The CoRM therefore believes that there should be equal rights. With the appeal to the State Secretary, the Commission hopes to make it clear that this policy is unacceptable.
Also read: The COA is about to collapse
In Ter Apel, the only registration center in the Netherlands, a crisis has been going on for months. The center is overcrowded and asylum seekers sleep outside at night or in temporary night shelters. If that does not change as of 1 August, the Refugee Council will go to court. In addition, research by NRC that the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers is about to collapse. The college acknowledges the problems and says that the government has a duty to provide proper shelter to all refugees, even in crisis situations.