Not peddling for a reception place, but municipalities that actively offer places themselves. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) would benefit from this.
The COA is working with all its might to prevent last year’s situation, where people slept outside at the application center in Ter Apel. “We would be helped if all municipalities said: just come to COA and see what suitable places are in our municipality. Now it is often the case that we have to go to municipalities and ask: please help us,” says Corina Deekens, regional manager of the COA, in the TV Drenthe program De Staat van Drenthe.
It is frustrating that this does not work, she says. “It is difficult to see that it is not working. That it is not getting off the ground sufficiently. Emergency solutions and emergency shelter are offered, but you just want more structural capacity. This is sticking plasters.”
An example of a large emergency shelter is the Expo Hal in Assen. 500 asylum seekers live there. The lease expires at the end of May. The owner would like to renovate in June. The 500 asylum seekers would then have to be housed elsewhere. But as has often happened in the past two years, there is again talk of an extension of the contract. “I can’t say much about that right now, but talks between the municipality and the owner are ongoing,” says Deekens.
The result is that short-term shelter is extended again and again, while the living conditions in the shelter are not good enough for a long-term stay. There is also hardly any privacy in the Expo Hall and hygiene is substandard. “But we have no choice,” says Deekens. “The need is high and people cannot sleep outside, nobody wants that. We need those emergency shelter locations and so those permits are being extended again.
Mayor Rikus Jager of the municipality of Westerveld sees a solution. “Maybe we should think about hiring people. They want to work, even if only on a voluntary basis. So that people at least have something to do.”
Majd Abdullah herself fled Syria. Participating in society has helped him to find his place. “In my first year I thought: I want to go back. But then I learned to cycle, I went to school and I also got to know other people from other countries. Then you learn what the norms and values are and you integrate into society.” Now Abdullah is studying business administration and wants to go into politics.
“By integrating early, even if they do not yet have a residence permit, you solve the labor shortage. And you offer people the opportunity to learn the language faster. You then have a win-win situation,” says Abdullah.