From mid-January about 40 asylum seekers will be accommodated in the Prins Willem Alexander farm in Alteveer. The farm serves as a temporary emergency shelter until April 1, 2023. Local residents are angry that they were only informed of this today.
The government has instructed all provinces to support the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA). The agreement is that all municipalities in Drenthe will receive 50 asylum seekers. The municipality of Noordenveld has previously provided shelter in Veenhuizen.
‘Knife in the back’
Primary school BBS De Verwondering is located in the Prins Willem Alexander farm in Alteveer, where 20 students are currently being taught. Close neighbors have been talking to the school and the municipality of Noordenveld for three years about the noise nuisance they experience. The fact that 44 refugees (mainly women and children up to the age of eighteen, ed.) are now arriving feels like ‘a knife in the back’.
“We don’t feel taken seriously,” says one of the Alteveerders. “We are told from the municipality that they did not know much earlier than today, while we have been seeing people walking across the site with briefcases and papers for weeks. Then it seems to me that they knew this earlier.”
According to mayor Klaas Smid of the municipality of Noordenveld, people walked across the site for a technical inspection only last week.
“Well, what do you think of it?”, another neighbor sighs. “What I am disappointed with is that there is no communication. How long has this been known? And why are we only hearing about it today? I have already indicated in conversation with the mayor this afternoon that I can disagree with it , but that it does not affect the decision.”
No intervention process
Mayor Smid acknowledges that Alteveer residents were only told today that they will temporarily be getting 40 villagers. “You don’t have an extensive consultation process in these kinds of cases,” he says. “You know you will be criticized. This afternoon I personally called the immediate neighbors as much as possible and listened to their concerns.”
Smid says he understands those concerns, but indicates that this group of refugees in Coevorden ‘have not caused any discord’. “They were there in a bank building and it went well there. They only have to leave on January 15.”
“This is not about single men, but about women with children,” continues Smid. “If there is any nuisance in any way, we will counter it. As a municipality you are obliged to do this in a good way and we will arrange it as well as possible.”
Population doubles
Smid says he chose the Prins Willem Alexander farm because it ‘can be made very suitable as a shelter’. Local residents see this differently, also because only about 50 people live in the village of Alteveer and the population will soon almost double.
The immediate neighbors do not believe that they will not experience any nuisance from the reception of refugees. “We have been experiencing nuisance from the school for three years and nothing has been done about it,” they say. Smid responds by indicating once again that the municipality will do everything it can to prevent nuisance.
Information meeting
In principle, the reception of refugees Alteveer will last until April 1, 2023. Then several large asylum seekers’ centers in the Netherlands must be ready to accommodate refugees.
An information meeting for local residents will be held on Tuesday 10 January. The municipality of Noordenveld, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), the Safety Region Drenthe (VRD) and the Red Cross will be present.