Security regions do not comply with agreements: too little space for asylum seekers

Almost two thirds of the security regions have not realized the agreed number of reception places for Ukrainians or regular asylum seekers. This is apparent from internal figures from the Information Coordination Center for Ukraine (KCIO), which regulates the distribution of refugees among the 25 regions.

The security regions are struggling with a lack of locations, personnel, contractors and materials to renovate locations.

15 of the 25 security regions have not yet arranged the agreed reception places for Ukrainians or other asylum seekers. Only four of them have not properly arranged the 2,000 beds for Ukrainians, which were agreed with the cabinet at the beginning of March. Seven security regions do not meet the 225 crisis emergency reception places for other asylum seekers, an agreement made at the end of June. Also read: Safety regions are preparing 3,750 extra emergency shelter places together

Four regions have arranged both too few beds for Ukrainians and too little reception for other asylum seekers: Gelderland-Midden, Gooi en Vechtstreek, Zeeland and Limburg-South. Gelderland-Midden does not even have crisis emergency shelters for asylum seekers “from a humanitarian point of view”, a spokesperson said. Some other regions, such as Rotterdam-Rijnmond, Noord-Holland-Noord and Utrecht, accommodate hundreds of people more than agreed.

Remarkable

It is striking that two-thirds of the regions do not yet have enough reception places, since last week the cabinet asked the security regions to arrange an additional 5,600 reception places for asylum seekers – 225 per region. With this, the cabinet wants to relieve the application center in Ter Apel, where hundreds of asylum seekers again had to sleep outside last weekend. It led to fights among the waiting people.

But those extra 5,600 reception places are met with resistance from municipalities. Earlier, the mayor of Nijmegen Hubert Bruls, chairman of the Security Council, announced that municipalities will provide crisis emergency shelter until October, but then want to stop it, because they are already reaching their limits.

At the request of NRC shows that security regions face serious problems in finding suitable locations. For example, Zaanstreek-Waterland wanted to use a cruise ship for 1,078 people, but that turned out to be impossible “because of the excessive amount of nitrogen emissions,” says a spokesperson. The region is now almost 500 places short for the reception of Ukrainians.

Staff shortages also play a major role. Municipal officials are often deployed in the reception areas. The Drenthe security region says that “it is not a question of will, but of ability”. A great deal of energy is devoted to the reception of Ukrainian refugees, which means that extra crisis emergency shelters – often camp beds in sports halls, intended for a maximum of three days – is “very complicated” for other asylum seekers.

Minimal requirements

In addition, many available sites do not meet the minimum requirements and must be renovated. While safety regions notice that there are waiting times at contractors and there is a scarcity of building materials.

Also read this report: Waiting in the stench of poop and pee

It will be exciting in the coming weeks. Due to the mandatory evacuation from the Donbas region, which the Ukrainian government has decided, the KCIO expects 70 to 100 extra people a day from Ukraine from this week. That is on top of the more than 200 entering the country already.

The reception of regular asylum seekers is also a problem. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), which arranges reception for asylum seekers, is thousands of places short. In addition, a third of the asylum seekers’ centers are occupied by status holders – people who are entitled to a home of their own but do not yet have one. In recent years, municipalities have arranged too few homes for these 15,000 people.