Emergency asylum shelter costs way above budget for some cities

Many municipalities in the Netherlands spent way more on providing emergency shelter for asylum seekers than they received in compensation from the COA, the central agency for the reception of asylum seekers. Though a small number of municipalities actually managed to spend less than the compensation and have money left over, according to a study done by Reporter Radio, AD reports. Asylum seekers spent time in emergency shelters between September 2015 and February 2016. An emergency shelter was usually located in a gymnasium or school hall and asylum seekers stayed there for between three days and a week. The COA first gave municipalities 40 euros in compensation for each asylum seeker they gave emergency shelter to. That amount was increased to 100 euros after it was revealed that 40 euros wasn't close to enough. The Reporter Radio study shows that even 100 euros per asylum seeker per night was not enough for many municipalities. 60 percent of Dutch municipalities spent more than 100 euros per asylum seeker per night. The average spent was around 125 euros. Zoetermeer and Leiden was most over budget, spending 491 and 269 euros respectively. A few municipalities managed to spend less money than they received from the COA. Landsmeer, for example, spent 51 thousand euros on sheltering 190 asylum seekers in October. For that the COA paid the municipality 114 thousand euros. And Olst-Wijhe spent 22,500 euro on emergency asylum shelter, and received 36 thousand euros from the COA.