Mayors, Cabinet fail to reach agreement on asylum shelter

The security regions and the Cabinet did not agree on a new plan to better organize asylum reception in the Netherlands on Monday evening. They will meet again later this week to discuss this topic.

The mayors on the Security Council and a delegation from the Cabinet, including State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum), discussed a plan that should solve and prevent problems at the asylum registration center in Ter Apel. They couldn’t come to an agreement yet. The mayors want a more structural solution and a more stable reception in the short term. More housing is also needed.

One of the bottlenecks is financing. Municipalities want guarantees before investing to make more homes suitable for housing refugees, for example. Municipalities are also struggling with staff shortages. “There is a shortage of people everywhere,’ said State Secretary Van der Burg. He acknowledged that the Cabinet should make commitments to the security regions.

Neither the Minister nor the Security Council can promise they will reach an agreement later this week. “I am confident that we will reach a solution to properly arrange the reception of asylum seekers. We will continue constructively with this,” said Hubert Bruls, chairman of the Security Council, consisting of the mayors that chair the 25 security regions. Bruls is also mayor of Nijmegen.

Before the meeting, several mayors were already worried. They do not want to force other mayors to take in people. “This puts us in an impossible position. We work very well together. I want to keep it that way,” said mayor Femke Halsema of Amsterdam. Bruls also said that the extra responsibilities are challenging for security regions. But the Security Council does feel responsible and wants to help solve the problems.

According to State Secretary Van der Burg, the failure to reach an agreement will not lead to immediate problems in the reception of asylum seekers. “It will not play a role now, in the coming days and next week,” he said. “In that sense, we also have time to ensure it is done well.”

If there is still no agreement next week, “then we will have to look further,” Van Der Burg said when asked. Both he and Bruls think they will be able to reach an agreement this week, though Monday’s consultations are said to have been difficult. “But until now, the security regions have said: as long as we are talking to each other, there will be no problems,” Van der Burg said. He has “no reason to doubt that.”

The Netherlands’ refugees’ council VluchtelingenWerk Nederland is “deeply disappointed” that the Cabinet and Security Council couldn’t come to an agreement. “The need is extremely high. If proper agreements are not made soon about more reception places for asylum seekers, it will be a matter of days before we see the past weeks’ terrible situation in Ter Apel again.”

“Every day that this situation continues is one too many. We are once again making an urgent appeal to municipalities and the Cabinet to come up with workable solutions quickly,” VluchtelingenWerk said. “We understand that it is complicated and demands a lot from municipalities, but that we fail to receive people decently in the Netherlands is degrading. Every day our employees see the consequences, especially for children, of the fact that they are received under conditions that fall well below the humanitarian threshold.”