Yesterday at 7:45 PM • Edited yesterday at 8:47 PM
A small group of opponents tried to stop the opening of the asylum seeker center in Nuenen at the court in Den Bosch on Thursday. Although the municipality received more than a thousand objections against the asylum seekers’ center at the Pastoorsmast, many objectors could not participate in the lawsuit because they live too far from the location according to the rules. They all think the shelter is in the wrong place.
The asylum seeker center is almost finished. The buildings are ready, the grounds are furnished, but the inside of the buildings still needs to be prepared for living and working. According to the COA, this will be ready at the end of July. The aim is for the new asylum seeker center to open its doors to 159 asylum seekers in mid-August. The residents will arrive in phases, according to the COA.
The small group of Nuenen residents wants to stop that. They asked the judge to temporarily suspend the environmental permit. Until another hearing takes place to stop construction. “We just don’t want an irreversible situation to arise,” says one of them.
“The buildings can be demolished again.”
But the buildings are already there, between the outskirts of Nuenen and the highway between Helmond and Eindhoven. The judge asked the municipality how irreversible the situation actually is. Can the asylum seeker center be demolished again if the court agrees with the local residents? According to the municipality, yes. “This is a temporary asylum seeker center for ten years. So the buildings can be demolished again. That has always been the intention.” After ten years, the location should be returned to nature.
But the municipality of Nuenen will not be really happy with the demolition of the asylum seekers’ center. And neither does COA. It would cost a lot of money. The group of Nuenen residents said in the corridors of the court on Thursday that they would prefer to see the asylum seeker center appear at a different location. “We must still adhere to the distribution law. It must be easy to move.”
“Not a good combination with single men.”
The location on the Pastoorsmast is unsuitable for the center, according to local residents. And the plans and agreements, the entire file surrounding the asylum seekers’ center, are ‘careless’ and ‘misleading’. Everything was done to convince the administrative judge that the permit should be suspended. From water management to the foundation and the impact on nature. Local residents believe that a power supply has been forced that was actually intended for new homes. And then of course safety.
For example, local residents do not trust that it will not only be single men who will live there. The residents must be a ‘reflection’ of the asylum influx, but the COA says it has no control over who comes to the Netherlands. “There is a hospice, a football club and a scouting group near the asylum seeker center,” say concerned residents. “That’s not a good combination with single men.”
But according to the municipality, the hospice and the football club have not filed an appeal against the asylum seekers’ center, although there are concerns that the municipality is trying to address with all kinds of agreements. The municipality says that if the COA wants to deviate from the agreements about the number of single men, it must first ask permission.
The administrative judge usually makes a decision within six weeks.