The reception of refugees in the Netherlands remains a topic of discussion for the mayors. The Security Council of the 25 mayors who chair a security region has it back on the agenda on Monday evening.
The mayors want to make it clear again to State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) that asylum reception is not a task of municipalities. Van der Burg takes part in the deliberations.
At the beginning of the summer, the security regions promised that they would make every effort until 1 October to provide many extra emergency shelters for asylum seekers who cannot go to Ter Apel. But after that it also ends immediately, according to council chairman Hubert Bruls, mayor of Nijmegen. The municipalities no longer have manpower or money for this and the central government will then have had the time to come up with a structural solution. That is not yet in sight.
Also the reception of Ukrainians fleeing the war cannot become a permanent task for municipalities, according to the deliberations. There are still plenty of reception places, but if more Ukrainians come to the Netherlands, maybe not anymore. The reception also puts pressure on ordinary municipal tasks. The mayors will present the problem to Van der Burg.