Cruise ship for accommodating 1,000 asylum seekers arrives in Velsen-Noord

Silja Europa, a cruise ship intended to shelter 1,000 asylum seekers until February, arrived in Velsen-Noord on Wednesday. The ship passed through the IJmuiden Sea Lock at around 6:30 a.m. this morning and moored at the VOB quay an hour later, NH Nieuws reports.

Now that the ship has arrived, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) needs three to five days to prepare the ship and quay for housing people. It is unclear when the first asylum seekers will go to Velsen-Noord.

The cruise ship's arrival has caused unrest in the Noord-Holland village since the plan's start in June, with locals protesting against it. Entrepreneurs on the VOB also worry that the quay is not suitable for living on.

According to the broadcaster, this is not the first time the Netherlands sheltered people on a cruise ship. In the nearly 1960s, hundreds of Italian and Spanish guest workers lived on a cruise ship in IJmuiden.