Municipalities, and no longer central government, must be responsible for the reception of promising asylum seekers. Upon arrival, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) must make this distinction with underprivileged asylum seekers as quickly as possible, much faster than at present.
This is stated in an advice from the Council for Public Administration and the Advisory Committee for Immigration Affairs to VVD State Secretary Van der Burg. That will be presented to the Secretary of State today.
According to the advice, the reception of asylum seekers should become a legal obligation for every municipality. The number of asylum seekers depends on the number of inhabitants. Every municipality receives sufficient money from the cabinet to properly guide newcomers from the start and to embed them in the local society.
Aid is now falling through the humanitarian threshold, the report said. Instead of clinging to a system that doesn’t work, the time has come to change course, the advice says. At the moment, COA and the State Secretary must always ask municipalities whether they want to arrange reception places. Some are willing to do so, others are not.
This regularly puts pressure on relationships. Between governments themselves, but also in local politics and society. It is therefore advised that there should be a municipal reception obligation in its place.
Should there be an obligation for the reception of asylum seekers according to the number of inhabitants?