At least seven hundred new reception places for asylum seekers must be found before 1 July, otherwise there is a threat of an acute shortage. That is what State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum, VVD) said to this site on Friday afternoon.
Several contracts with so-called crisis emergency shelters expire on 1 July. For example, locations in Culemborg (150 places), Zaltbommel (65), Oud-Beijerland (100) and Dordrecht (150) will close. “It means that we still need at least seven hundred new places before that date,” said the State Secretary after the Council of Ministers. According to the reception organization COA, talks are underway “with several municipalities”.
Front portals
Van der Burg also wants to get several ‘front portals’ off the ground as soon as possible. These must become reception locations for about five hundred asylum seekers each, who wait there until they can go to the Ter Apel application center to be registered and heard. On 1 July, the first ‘front portal’ will open in the Expo in Assen.
That is not enough. Van der Burg wants at least three or four more such waiting rooms in the country. That is why, just under two weeks ago, he made an emphatic appeal to municipalities to report ‘within a month’ if they want to open such a portal. So far, only one municipality has reported for this, says Van der Burg, with whom his ministry is in talks. “There really should be more,” he said Friday afternoon.
The State Secretary has agreed with the municipality of Westerwolde that the maximum of two thousand asylum seekers in the application center in Ter Apel will not be exceeded. The situation in the application center is now ‘below two thousand’, says Van der Burg. A spokesman for the COA states that about 1700 to 1800 people have been staying in Ter Apel for some time now. However, the aliens police, where all asylum seekers must be registered, is still struggling with a backlog of seven hundred.
There are currently 53,300 asylum seekers in the Netherlands with a right to reception by the reception organization COA. 30,000 of them stay in regular azcs, the rest in emergency reception locations or crisis emergency shelters (such as sports halls).
Stable
The number of asylum seekers in shelters has been fairly stable for several months. This is partly because the influx of new asylum seekers is less than expected. The cabinet had taken into account that some 70,000 people would apply for asylum in the Netherlands this year, but for the time being that forecast does not seem to be coming true.
In May, some 3,600 people applied for asylum in the Netherlands. That is about the same as in May last year. The number of applications usually peaks in the summer months of August and September.
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