Cabinet fights asylum ruling in court as situation in shelters deteriorate further

The Cabinet wants an extension for improving asylum seekers living conditions. At the beginning of this month, the court in The Hague ruled that the government had to start work on this immediately. The State wanted to avoid that and turned to the court for a postponement. The court will handle this request on Monday. In the meantime, the over 19,000 people in crisis and emergency asylum shelters are facing deteriorating living conditions, according to VluchtelingenWerk Nederland.

Early this month, the court ruled that the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) does not meet the European standards for the dignified reception of asylum seekers, and the State must address the situation immediately. State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) appealed. The appeal will appear in court on November 10. But in the meantime, the State is also trying to get a postponement of the order to start improving people’s living conditions immediately.

The ruling to improve asylum seekers’ living conditions came in preliminary relief proceedings filed by VluchtelgingenWerk. The Dutch refugee council argued that asylum reception in the Netherlands “drops deep below the humanitarian lower limit.” The court agreed and ruled that, among other things, vulnerable asylum seekers like young children and unaccompanied children may no longer be placed in crisis emergency shelters, starting immediately. Anyone who reports to the asylum registration center in Ter Apel must also immediately get a safe covered sleeping place, food, water, and access to hygienic sanitary facilities.

According to State Secretary Van der Burg, the State cannot carry out the ruling within the prescribed period. It is impossible to quickly convert all crisis shelters and emergency shelters into regular asylum seekers’ accommodations “because you just need other accommodation for that,” he said.

And in the meantime, more and more people are facing deteriorating living conditions in emergency shelters, VluchtelingenWerk said on Monday. The number of people in emergency shelters rose from 7,000 in March to over 12,800 in October, including 3,000 children. They’re mainly housed in larger locations like barracks, sports halls, boats, and school buildings. Crisis shelters often involve stretchers in sports halls. About 6,500 people currently live like that.

“Vulnerable asylum seekers like babies, pregnant women, and the seriously ill cannot be accommodated in these circumstances for a day longer,” VluchtelingenWerk said about the government’s lawsuit for a postponement. “It is unexplainable that the State is now delaying, especially for the most vulnerable, including children.”

VluchtelingenWerk wants the government to place refugees - asylum seekers whose application was granted and received a residency permit in the Netherlands - in hotels to relieve the pressure on the asylum chain. That would create room in regular asylum shelters for vulnerable people.

The council for refugees also called on municipalities to look for places that are suitable for the structural reception of asylum seekers. The Cabinet is working on a “distribution law,” which will legally oblige municipalities to take in a certain number of people. VluchtelingenWerk believes that its implementation is taking too long.