It is extremely uncertain whether Limburg can realize enough extra reception places for Ukrainian refugees. The government has also given the two security regions in Limburg an obligation to make an effort to create more shelters before the summer.
It is not yet known how many additional shelters will need to be built in the province.
Proposal
“We must soon come up with a proposal from the government,” a spokesperson for the South Limburg security region told L1. However, there is not much time left: by the end of June, State Secretary for Asylum Eric van der Burg wants the extra 25,000 to be realised.
Empty buildings
In order to realize the extra reception places, vacant buildings are being looked at, among other things. “You can, for example, convert these, then you keep collecting places together.” The security region is also conducting an initial orientation on the use of flexible housing. There are no concrete plans for this yet, but ‘you also hear options about that elsewhere in the country’, according to a spokesperson.
The security regions expect to be able to meet Van der Burg’s earlier request this summer to create 50,000 reception places. In Limburg there are 4,000 places. This is expected to be nearly met.
‘More places are desperately needed’
The extra reception places are in any case ‘desperately needed’, according to a statement press release from Tuesday afternoon. The number of Ukrainian refugees coming to the Netherlands continues to grow. The mayor of Maastricht and chair of the South Limburg security region, Annemarie Penn-te Strake, not only wants to realize extra shelter for Ukrainian refugees, but also does not turn a blind eye to the national emergency in the reception of asylum seekers from outside Ukraine. “This is the reason why, since Friday evening, at the request of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), about 50 asylum seekers have been received for a maximum of one week in the transfer location in Glanerbrook in Geleen. This was possible because at that time there were no Ukrainian refugees in the country. Glanerbrook and the asylum seekers have been sheltering for a short period of time,” said Penn-te Strake. However, it is not the intention that the Security Regions will deal with the reception of non-Ukrainian asylum seekers. That task remains with the COA.
More than 36,000 refugees from Ukraine are currently staying in municipal emergency shelters. About 2,300 of these are located in Limburg. However, there are even more Ukrainian refugees in the Netherlands: some live with private persons and are (for example) not registered in the municipality.