“I am happy with the promise, but it still has to be fulfilled”, that is Jerke Setz’s first reaction to the statements by State Secretary Eric van der Burg about a stricter policy towards municipalities when it comes to receiving asylum seekers. Setz is a member of the group Never sleep outside again.
The State Secretary told the House of Representatives yesterday that municipalities may no longer refuse certain asylum seekers, such as single men, in their reception. The government can intervene and forcibly house these asylum seekers with a municipality. As far as the State Secretary is concerned, no asylum seekers are sleeping outside in Ter Apel.
The story is dear to Jerke Setz’s heart. He is a council member of the ChristenUnie in Assen and a member of the group Never sleep outside again. “Last year I was a volunteer at the application center in Ter Apel when things got out of hand there. We saw inhumane situations with the refugees sleeping on the street. It is very strange that you have created a kind of disaster area in a country like the Netherlands, because policy does not reflect reality.
Last year, the Asser councilor already discussed this with State Secretary Van der Burg: “At the time, he could not rule out the possibility that refugees would still be sleeping outside. thinks sleeping outside is inhumane and will not let that happen again. The promise is a first step, but it still has to be fulfilled,” says Setz.
According to Setz, the first hitch is partly caused by Van der Burg’s party itself. The State Secretary for Asylum and Migration is being criticized by the VVD about the way in which municipalities should implement the distribution law. A hearing on the bill has been postponed. Jerke Setz calls it scandalous, he finds it incomprehensible that the national VVD faction is making it so difficult for their own secretary of state.
“What the faction consistently does is say that the influx has to be reduced. Many parties who share that view think that we should get a grip on migration. But what they forget is that this is an extremely time-consuming and complex process. You also want to prevent that a lot of people are drowning in the Mediterranean Sea. You have to bring that down in a humane way. In the meantime, as a country you have to take responsibility for that shelter,” Setz says firmly.
The Asser councilor would have preferred that the distribution law not be necessary. “Making municipalities obligatory? Rather not, but it is necessary. That has to do with the fact that the municipalities themselves have not made a good distribution about the reception. What you see with the Ukraine influx is fairly well distributed,” Setz concludes. .
“But if you look at the influx of regular asylum seekers, you see that Friesland, Groningen, Drenthe and Flevoland rise above themselves,” he continues. “Almost all of them do two, three or four times as much as what is expected of them. But a province like South Holland, for example, only does half. And a municipality like Rotterdam only takes in 500 refugees. Assen does more, while Rotterdam does more. than half a million inhabitants.
Jerke Setz likes to support the State Secretary’s call: “It is extremely important that everyone takes their responsibility. As far as I am concerned, there are really municipalities that are now failing to do so.”