Costs for asylum shelter jumped from €1.6 to €2.7 million last year

The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) 's yearly report shows that asylum shelters cost around 2.7 billion euros last year. This is a significant increase compared to the year before when the COA needed 1.6 billion euros to shelter foreigners. The main cause is the high price paid for (crisis) emergency shelter.

The fees for regular shelter were, on average, 30,400 euros per resident. The care for the people in emergency shelters is twice as expensive; an average of 69,400 euros per resident is spent on this. Shelter costs do not just consist of the physical housing or the room that somebody is staying in but also the costs of security, catering, and care, a spokesperson for the COA said.

Due to a shortage of regular shelters, more (temporary) emergency shelters have been added. According to the COA, the capacity requirement increased by almost a third in 2023.

The length of time that shelter is required is also a cause for the high costs. The number of people staying in the asylum centers is growing rapidly because they are staying in the centers for too long due to various reasons. For example, approximately 16,000 status holders are still waiting in an asylum seekers' center for a home. In addition, the backlog is causing longer waiting times at the Immigration and Naturalisation Service.

In 2021, the total cost of asylum reception was around 726 million euros. The COA added that the rising costs are also due to new asylum seekers and the closure of many asylum centers in the last few years. This resulted in replacement areas needing to be located and opened.

The COA also reports that the influx of unaccompanied minor foreigners increased by 38 percent last year compared to 2022. This involved 5,240 asylum seekers under the age of 18. In 2022, there were 3,250.

Some young people are now staying in regular or emergency reception locations for adults, while asylum seekers are supposed to go to a reception family or separate area to receive sufficient guidance. The COA expects more than 8,000 shelter places will be needed for young people this year.