“I don’t seem to explain this to the village.” This is how Erik van den Dungen, chairman of the Overloon village council, reacts to the plans of the Land van Cuijk municipality to receive 150 status holders on the site of the asylum seekers’ center.
The asylum seekers’ center should actually be empty on Thursday. Last year, the municipal council of the former Boxmeer decided that the asylum seekers’ center had to close because of the nuisance caused by asylum seekers from safe countries. To the relief of many people in Stevensbeek and Overloon. But now the municipality wants to receive 150 status holders at that location. According to the Land van Cuijk municipality, this is desperately needed because it is necessary to take the pressure off the flooding asylum seekers’ centres.
“Many people in a center, that creates tension.”
“We are unpleasantly surprised,” says village council chairman Erik van den Dungen. “We understand that there is a difference between status holders and asylum seekers. But if you are in a center with a lot of people, it creates tensions. This sounds a bit like old wine in new bottles to us.”
It was not for nothing that the village council argued that the asylum seekers center should be closed. Overloon and Stevensbeek have had a lot of nuisance from asylum seekers from safe countries in recent years. There were many thefts in the village. “The closure was the only way to stop the nuisance.”
“We don’t know if we will have to deal with nuisance again.”
In addition to the 150 status holders, the municipality also wants to receive 250 Ukrainian refugees. “The arrival of Ukrainians is acceptable to everyone. That would be temporary,” said the village council chairman. “But now something is happening of which we don’t know what the end will be. We don’t know if we will have to deal with nuisance again.”
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