Mayor Jaap Velema and his colleague Eric van Oosterhout did not return to Sellingen and Emmen empty-handed on Monday.
Their conversation with State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Justice and Security) and the management of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) has resulted in additional measures to reduce nuisance in Ter Apel and Nieuw-Weerdinge.
Most striking is a promise that underprivileged asylum seekers will be told where they stand within a week. To date, it has not been possible to speed up the registration procedures. The result is the wandering and loitering of mostly young men from North Africa who intimidate and commit vandalism and theft.
Permission to set area bans for all asylum seekers is also far-reaching. It conjures up a painful image. Soon there will be places in Groningen and Drenthe where you are undesirable as a refugee because the Dutch government does not yet have the paperwork in order.
For the residents of Ter Apel and Nieuw-Weerdinge, other matters are more important. For too long they feel unsafe because they have the misfortune of living in the vicinity of an application centre. It is good that the two mayors have been able to do something to give villagers a sense of security back. In this way, support for refugee reception can continue to exist.
However, this does not solve the real problem. The Netherlands is one of the safest and richest countries in the world. Thinking about the violence and poverty elsewhere, not to mention the gloomy future prospects due to climate change or the consequences of geopolitics, the choice to come here is obvious.
The solution to the real problem is not better protection for residents of Ter Apel and Nieuw-Weerdinge, but must be found in the countries of origin. As long as young people see no future there, and the main registration center is located on this edge of the prosperous Netherlands, they will continue to come.