Residents and shopkeepers in Maarheeze do not believe that safety around the asylum seekers center in the municipality of Cranendonck will improve now that the extra safety measures are extended by a month. The stabbing last Sunday in the asylum seekers’ center in Budel shows that nothing will change, says Ed Kalders of the shopkeepers’ association in Maarheeze: “This village is going to shit.”
“A political game is being played. We are not being heard,” says Kalders, who has an eyewear store in the center of Maarheeze. He saw the village change drastically in recent years. According to Kalders, there is a feeling of insecurity due to large groups of asylum seekers who come to Maarheeze. “They steal in shops and take bicycles with them. They also make noise and drink alcohol on the street.” According to Kalders, we have to wait for the moment when people will take the law into their own hands.
The asylum seekers’ center keeps things quite busy in the village. It is quiet in the shopping center on Monday evening, but there appears to be a great sense of insecurity. “I hardly dare to shop here anymore. It feels very unsafe if they are standing in groups on the street or standing at the cash register with a can of Coke,” says a woman who has just gone shopping. “At certain times I prefer not to go shopping at all. In the beginning I still had sympathy for the asylum seekers, but that is completely over.”
Kalders says that out of fear and irritation about the large groups of asylum seekers, more and more people avoid the shops in Maarheeze and shop elsewhere. A man who has just done some shopping says that politics is too soft. “Asylum seekers who are guilty of criminal behavior should simply be deported.”
He does not understand what the predominantly young men come to do in the Netherlands. “It would be better for them to build their own country. But on the other hand, it was also the case that shortly after the Second World War many Dutch emigrated to Australia and Canada for a better future.”
“We regularly see that the police have to intervene.”
They also see that there is a feeling of insecurity in Maarheeze at the local flower shop. “We ourselves are not bothered by it, because the asylum seekers do not come to buy flowers. But we regularly see that the police arrive with sirens and have to intervene.”
A man who has just left the Jumbo does not believe that the extended security measures around the asylum seekers’ center will change the situation. “Those young men often come from safe countries and have nothing to lose. Then they go to Maarheeze to buy something in the shops.”
The municipality of Cranendonck will still be contractually bound to the asylum seekers’ center for the next two years. Kalders hopes that the asylum seekers’ center will close earlier if the incidents continue.
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