Dutch gov't to keep funding shelter for rejected asylum seekers after all

Nothing is going on with the bed-bath-bread shelter scheme for people without a residency permit, such as asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies. State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) swore this in a short letter to parliament. As agreed in the coalition agreement, the National Aliens Facility (LVV) will be expanded to a nationwide network. Sources from around the government confirmed that Van der Burg had been pressured to reverse his earlier decision to stop funding this shelter next year.

Van der Burg wanted to scrap the scheme, which costs about 30 million euros annually, because budget cuts had to be made, a spokesperson for the State Secretary said on Tuesday. It caused a lot of commotion, including among coalition pirates D66 and ChristenUnie. MPs from both factions immediately announced that they wanted to keep the scheme. Van der Burg also heard from other political levels that scrapping the project goes against earlier agreements and that he had to withdraw his plans.

The letter from the State Secretary to parliament, therefore, shows a 180-degree turn. “The Cabinet will enter into discussions with the municipalities about continuing the LVV. The aim is to reach administrative agreements in line with the coalition agreement, whereby financing is made possible from the asylum funds,” Van den Burg wrote.

Not only national politicians but also municipalities reacted with fury, not least because they were not informed in advance about the State Secretary’s decision. In 2019, Amsterdam, Eindhoven, Groningen, Rotterdam, and Utrecht started providing this shelter for people without a residency permit. The pilot was a compromise between the Rutte II coalition parties PvdA and VVD. The Rutte II Cabinet almost collapsed over the issue in 2015.

The Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) considered it sensible that the State Secretary quickly reversed his decision, said Rutger Groot Wassink’s spokesperson. The Amsterdam alderman is the chairman of the Asylum and Migration Committee of the VNG. According to him, the state of affairs is strange. “But we will certainly receive clarification from the State Secretary in the next consultation.”

In his letter to parliament, Van der Burg also called nuisance-causing asylum seekers “absolutely unacceptable” because they pressure locals’ sense of security and reduce support for sheltering asylum seekers. He wants to put an end to this with prevention and a tough approach.

With the annual 45 million euros extra the Cabinet made available last year, efforts are being made to prevent nuisance and tackle “asylum seekers who abuse the hospitality of the Netherlands and cause nuisance,” the State Secretary wrote. On top of that comes 15 million euros the Cabinet made available to invest in the return of foreign nationals who did not get asylum to their country of origin. A plan will soon be ready for the precise spending of that money.

For some time now, a tit-for-tat policy has been implemented in which various authorities work together. “This cooperation aims to make it impossible for the hardcore nuisance causers to travel through the Netherlands and remain elusive,” Van der Burg said. Experiments are also happening with the rapid processing of asylum applications from people who cause nuisance. If they do not have the right to asylum, the authorities start working on their return. “A strict approach should discourage malicious asylum seekers from coming to the Netherlands.”