On Monday evening, the 25 mayors of the Security Council will discuss the status of crisis emergency shelters for asylum seekers, the accommodation of status holders and the reception of Ukrainians. State Secretary Eric van der Burg of Asylum Affairs is participating in the digital consultation.
The mayors all chair a security region. Each security region must provide another 5,600 crisis emergency shelters until 1 January to alleviate the problems at the application center in Ter Apel. For this it is also necessary that there is space in asylum seekers’ centers. Every municipality must therefore urgently look for housing for status holders, refugees who already know that they can stay in the Netherlands. These status holders now occupy places in asylum seekers’ centres.
State Secretary Van der Burg also wants the security regions to provide a total of 75,000 reception places for war refugees from Ukraine. Previously there were 50,000 reception places, but more space appears to be needed. According to the mayors, finding shelters for Ukrainians is going reasonably well so far. It encounters much less resistance than the arrival of asylum seekers.
At the end of August, the mayors demanded that there be a location where outdoor sleepers from Ter Apel could be accommodated. Otherwise they would not be cooperating with new demands, which do not actually belong to the task of municipalities. In the past week, however, hundreds of people have again had to spend the night outside. A reception location has been found in Zoutkamp. The mayors want to hear from Van der Burg whether sleeping outside is over now.