The number of incidents involving so-called ‘safelanders’ from the asylum seeker center in Aalden has decreased in recent months. “Fortunately, additional measures are having an effect. Although we still see an uneven balance in the village, with about 500 asylum seekers for 1,800 inhabitants.”
This is what chairman Gertjan Reinders of Dorpsbelangen Aalden says, also on behalf of Dorpsbelangen Zweeloo. Last summer his village was in the news after a series of incidents involving asylum seekers who caused a nuisance. Extra security was deployed in the supermarket in the village, partly because other visitors did not feel safe there. Other reports concerned, among other things, disrespectful behavior by asylum seekers. In some places, people simply walked into a backyard or a home. Female villagers reported that they no longer felt comfortable on the streets.
Dorpsbelangen Aalden sounded the alarm, as did councilor Thieno Nijenbanning (BBC2014). “That did have an effect,” Reinders says now. “During that period there was something going on all the time, but now that is almost no longer the case.” According to him, the lines between village interests, the municipality and the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) have become a lot shorter. “And we also see street coaches walking through the village almost every day, which has a positive effect.”
Councilor Nijenbanning, who raised the alarm with the municipal council in response to several signals from Aalden and Zweeloo in July, also sees an improvement. “The conversations have indeed intensified and you can see that this has an immediate positive effect on the street. The fact that we put some extra pressure on this last summer probably helped.”
Yet it remains important for Aalden to keep a finger on the pulse, says Reinders. “The asylum center has been here for more than 25 years. For a long time, the shelter went quite well, especially because there were many families with young children who found a place here. You would meet those children again at the football club, for example, and that blended in very well. “
However, according to the village, there has been a shift in recent years and it is increasingly ‘safelanders’ and unaccompanied minor asylum seekers who are received in Aalden. ”And that creates a different dynamic on the street, especially on Aelderstraat, the road between the asylum center and the supermarket. That also requires extra attention.” In addition, relocation to another shelter in the event of incidents is now more difficult than before, Reinders adds.
Five hundred refugees are currently being accommodated in the asylum center on the Witte Zandpad. Since August, that is fifty more than before. There is now an agreement that this expansion with fifty additional shelter places will be maintained for a period of two years, but may then be extended for another year.
Reinders: “The intention is now to evaluate this situation at the end of this year. We would prefer to see the number of shelter places return to 450 soon.” Dorpsbelangen says it will remain in contact with the municipality of Coevorden about this.
Although there are now virtually no incidents, residents in the village still feel that the balance is somewhat lost. “Sometimes people have the feeling that they are guests in their own village, the relationship is somewhat disturbed.” Precisely for that reason, Dorpsbelangen has submitted a request to the municipality to keep Aalden out of harm’s way for the time being in the event of any additional placement of status holders (refugees with residence status, ed.) in vacant homes.