Hotels approached to help receive Ukrainian refugees

The security regions approached various hotel chains for taking in asylum seekers from Ukraine, but concrete agreements about numbers and the period have not yet been made. Hotel chains Van der Valk and Fletcher Hotels, among others, confirmed this to ANP. The Cabinet formally instructed the 25 security regions to each arrange shelter for 2,000 Ukrainian asylum seekers in the short term. 

The security regions are almost ready with the first 50,000 emergency spaces. "The regions are already looking for larger numbers," said Security Council chairman Hubert Bruls, also the mayor of Nijmegen. The mayors are mainly looking at large-scale facilities like vacant office buildings, hotels, holiday parks, river cruise ships, and "pavilions here and there" available for at least six months.

Fletcher Hotels said that a municipality and various security regions approached them about the reception of asylum seekers. The chain does not yet know the number or length of stay. "We are prepared to take our social responsibility and do our bit," said director Rob Hermans. The chain will make a single hotel location available in its entirety for asylum seekers.

Van der Valk said it received "different requests" to see the availability for each location and that it is taking action locally to help asylum seekers. This can also be done in other ways than offering hotel rooms, a spokesperson said.

TopParken offers temporary shelter for affected families from Ukraine at the park locations, the organization said. It examines what is needed and possible in consultation with municipalities and owners of holiday homes.

Major event locations said they have little space to help accommodate asylum seekers in the coming months. RAI Amsterdam, World Forum The Hague, and Rotterdam Ahoy cite their full agendas as the reason. They point out that they've only recently become able to organize events again after the Cabinet lifted the coronavirus restrictions. 

MEC Maastricht said it is "busy win talks with the municipality," but only has a few hundred places in the coming month and finds that "inadequate." The Limburg fair and conference center will help by, for example, picking up asylum seekers in Poland by bus, a spokesperson said. The Jaarbeurs in Utrecht said it had "a first contact" with the municipality and "has a lot of space." Not all buildings will have constant events in the coming period.

During a meeting of the Security Council on Monday, the Cabinet officially instructed the mayors that head the Netherlands' 25 security regions to find space for 2,000 asylum seekers each. The mayors also agreed with the Cabinet to ensure that Ukrainian and other asylum seekers don't end up competing for space. "Because everyone has equal rights when he or she enters the country."

The mayors stressed that they couldn't be responsible for the entire stream of asylum seekers entering the Netherlands. "That is up to the [refugee reception agency] COA," Bruls said.

State Secretary Eric van der Burg said on Monday that "The municipalities are right to trust that the central government will bear the costs." The government wants the security regions to have the first 25,000 spaces ready within ten days. The other 25,000 spaces must be prepared within a few weeks.