New, ‘prison-like’ reception facilities should discourage asylum seekers from safe countries | Politics

The special centers are intended for migrants for whom it has already been established upon arrival in the Netherlands that their asylum application hardly stands a chance. The prison-like regime should ‘discourage aliens without a legitimate protection demand’ from applying for asylum in our country, State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum, VVD) wrote to the House of Representatives.

He also wants to use ‘tight house rules’ to prevent asylum seekers from stalling their asylum procedure by not showing up on the day that a hearing is scheduled. An asylum seeker must therefore be ‘available’ during office hours. The plan is also that asylum seekers in the new reception center will not receive living allowance, as is customary during the asylum procedure, but as many items as possible ‘in kind’.

The new type of asylum seekers center, called a process availability location (PBL), is only intended for migrants from so-called safe countries, such as Morocco or Tunisia, and people who have already submitted an asylum application elsewhere in Europe or already have a residence permit in another country.

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Asylum seekers from safe countries have been a thorn in the side of the government for some time. This group – especially young men – regularly causes great nuisance, because they have no perspective and have nothing to lose. A trial has already been carried out with sober care for this group. The experience with this was positive, but despite ‘an urgent appeal’ to municipalities and provinces, the cabinet was unable to find additional locations for sober reception before the end of the pilot.

That is why, emphasizes Van der Burg, finding a suitable location and personnel is ‘an important condition for setting up the PBL’. He is, however, in ‘concrete talks’ about ‘a potential location’ where the first sober center should be built.

The cabinet also wants to declare people who are not allowed to stay in the Netherlands, but who do not leave themselves, as undesirable aliens. The elaboration of that plan from the coalition agreement would be discussed by Van der Burg in the Council of Ministers on Friday.

According to sources, people who are in our country illegally and do not cooperate in returning to their country of origin can receive short prison sentences or fines if they cause a nuisance. The hope is that it will become less attractive to stay in the Netherlands without a residence permit. The measure does not apply to all illegal immigrants, but can be used per person.

State Secretary Eric van der Burg (VVD) of Justice recently visited the overloaded application center for asylum seekers in Ter Apel: