After heavy criticism, the municipality of Tynaarlo went back to the drawing board with its refugee policy last year. The first steps towards this new policy have now been made, now it is up to the residents of the municipality to make their own decisions. The so-called draft Local Refugee Policy has been available for inspection since yesterday and residents have until February 6 to respond to it.
The refugee policy describes the responsibility of the municipality of Tynaarlo for the reception of refugees and how the municipality wants to approach this.
Last year, Tynaarlo came up with plans for an asylum seeker center in Vries. This caused a lot of resistance and the city council ultimately ruled that the approach was too messy. The council set the council to work on a new action plan.
In October, the council approved the first draft of the new plan for Tynaarlo. This consists of eleven points, which include that there is room for 250 to 500 reception places within the municipality. The places are divided over a minimum of three and a maximum of five locations and will remain open for a maximum of ten years.
Mayor Marcel Thijsen states in the plan that he does not want remote reception locations, he wants refugees to integrate quickly and sustainably. “This way they have a much greater chance of successfully building a meaningful life for themselves here.”
The municipality is now waiting for any objections that can be submitted. These views are assessed and it is then determined whether the policy still needs to be adjusted. Tynaarlo expects to come up with a final plan in March, which the municipal council must then approve. The municipality will then start making an inventory of potential reception locations, with a list of suitable locations being announced by the summer. A choice will be made in the autumn and it must be clear where an asylum seeker center will be located.
Over the past year, the council has been called on to go through the process transparently and openly, in order to ensure greater support among the population. In the provisional refugee policy, the municipality of Tynaarlo says that it will make the steps in the process publicly known and local residents of selected locations will be actively informed.
Tynaarlo currently has reception locations for refugees in Eelde-Paterswolde and Vries.