Municipalities can be forced to receive asylum seekers. The VVD faction in the House of Representatives has agreed to a new asylum law after long struggles. As a result, asylum seekers can be spread more across our country. Marco Out, chairman of the Drenthe Security Region and mayor of Assen, is relieved. “I am pleased that work can continue on a solution.”
According to Out, it has become clear in recent months that there are too few places to receive people properly. Those places were once there, but were closed again when the influx of asylum seekers decreased. “Those places have to come back,” says the safety region chairman. “But that doesn’t happen by itself. The government now has the opportunity to say that everyone should take care of a good part.”
The government has been calling for municipalities to take responsibility for the reception of asylum seekers for some time, but that did not have enough effect. “In some regions, that hasn’t happened,” Out notes. “But I think we have done very well in Drenthe.”
Out emphasizes that the exact numbers for this so-called spreading law are not yet known. “But with the number of permanent, regular azc places, we now have room for about three thousand asylum seekers. I think that is enough. Other regions did not do enough, with the result that pressure remained.”
In recent times, the necessary emergency accommodation has been realized to remove the worst pressure on the application center in Ter Apel. “But that is only a temporary rule. The point is: there are simply too few permanent places. There should be more of that,” says Out.
Out compares it to housing status holders. These are people who have received a residence permit. “These are fairly evenly distributed across all municipalities,” he outlines. “That works well in itself. Now it is said for the phase before that: if everyone gets a portion that suits the size of the municipality, then you will solve this problem.”
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