Mayor Eric van Oosterhout van Emmen believes that the cabinet should use coercion so that municipalities can receive asylum seekers. “If we ultimately do not get the places realised, then it is not strange to put some force on it,” he refers to the overcrowded application center in Ter Apel and the shortage of reception places.
From June 29, four security regions, including Drenthe, must receive extra refugees to relieve Ter Apel. In addition to Emmen, Midden-Drenthe and De Wolden have also made beds available. This concerns 75 asylum seekers per municipality, a temporary measure, born out of necessity.
Van Oosterhout understands that State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) will stay away from coercion for the time being, but that would help a municipality like Emmen, says the mayor. “If you say: ‘You have to do this’, it also makes it easier for us as a college to explain it. Some coercion does not seem wrong at all in this emergency.”
Incidentally, Van Oosterhout thinks the rotation system used by the security regions is only an interim solution. “Putting down beds and opening showers is not such a trick. That is not a solution in the long term, but actually some patchwork.” He therefore argues for an approach that will help everyone get out of trouble on a structural basis. “The biggest point is that a lot of people are in asylum centers who have to move on to a house. We have to work on this together, but that is difficult, because we have a housing and asylum crisis.”
The Emmer mayor therefore proposes to temporarily accommodate status holders in mobile homes, for example. “That way, places will become available in the asylum centers again and people can still live fairly normally,” he suggests. “The whole train has to get going, with the ultimate goal that people can live in a normal place.”
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