The Netherlands Council for Refugees will go to court on Monday because the reception of asylum seekers does not meet the legal minimum standards. At the beginning of this month, the organization had already issued an ultimatum to the central government on 1 August. “We see no other option.”
The foundation showed Friday evening at the television program news hour At the beginning of next week, the State and the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) intend to formally hold them liable ‘for the harmful and inhumane conditions in the asylum reception centre’. At the moment, 43,000 people are being taken care of with pain and difficulty, that number will increase to 51,000 by the end of this year.
In the meantime, there is a structural shortage of reception places for asylum seekers in the Netherlands, as a result of which thousands of asylum seekers have been staying in (crisis) emergency reception locations for months, according to the Council for Refugees. “The conditions there are falling through the humanitarian lower limit.”
According to the Council for Refugees, a court ruling can help to break the administrative impasse. There is no lack of solutions for the shortage of reception places, but there would be a lack of decisiveness due to an impasse between the central government and municipalities. “The current reception crisis is primarily an administrative crisis.”
A law is currently being drafted that can force municipalities to receive additional asylum seekers. There is also more money and there are more shelters. The COA leaves in a comment news hour nevertheless, as of Monday, we are unable to structurally comply with the statutory duty to receive all asylum seekers humanely. The executor is in talks with many municipalities to create extra space.
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