With the arrival of more asylum seekers in the Netherlands, the pressure on refugee reception is increasing considerably. This is also the case in Brabant, where more temporary reception locations have recently been opened. This Thursday morning, the first 25 asylum seekers will arrive at a newly opened reception center in Oirschot.
Drilling and work continued all Wednesday. And the wifi still needs work. But most of the dots are on the i, in a former addiction clinic on the Oerlesedijk in Oirschot. 144 asylum seekers can go here. The first ones are welcome from Thursday morning, they are mainly families.
Location manager Hans Wouters shows the building with pride. “We have converted 35 rooms. It contains two bunk beds, four cupboards and a TV,” he says, entering room 0.02. “We had to adjust a lot: the sewage system was not in order. But we managed to do it anyway.”
Overview
The fact that the work is as good as finished is very convenient for the Central Shelter for Asylum Seekers. Due to a significant increase in asylum seekers, there is a shortage of reception places, for which Oirschot now partly offers a solution. Previously, for example, the Brabant municipalities of Oss, Breda and Roosendaal took precedence, as can be seen in the map here.
All reception locations in Brabant can be seen in the map. View the ticket here in full screen†
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Mayor Judith Keijzers-Verschilling did not have to think twice to give permission to receive asylum seekers at this location. She also saw images from Ter Apel, where asylum seekers had to sleep outside and on the ground.
heartbreaking
“These are heartbreaking situations and then you have to take responsibility. This special place became available and then it is a matter of course to receive 150 people here. There are many people in need and we have previously received refugees in our municipalities,” she says.
According to the mayor, local residents find it exciting, because they suddenly have many new neighbors. “But they are very hospitable. As in other municipalities, negative voices can sometimes be heard here. Mostly because of the overstrained housing market. But they are all people in need that we should not fight for.”
It also became apparent on Wednesday evening that the situation surrounding asylum seekers is extremely dire. A shortage of buses meant that the refugees were unable to make the journey from the application center in Ter Apel to West Brabant. That is why the municipality of Roosendaal quickly rented a bus to pick up the group.
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