Dutch town gives refugees up to €10,000 shopping spree

A refugee family allocated a house in Oisterwijk can gets over 10 thousand euros from the municipality to furnish the house, according to research done by Brabants Dagblad. That money is also a gift - the family does not have to pay it back. BD asked the municipalities in its distribution area about the money they give to refugees. The amounts vary greatly. Oisterwijk pays the most with 10,602 euros for a family with two kids. In Bernheze, Schijndel Veghel and Sint-Michielsgestel that same family would get around 3,500 and in Boekel it would be 2,200 euros. Whether or not the family pays the money back also varies. Some municipalities, like Oisterwijk, considers it a gift. In others the money has to be paid back, at least partly. In Oss, for example, the whole amount must by paid back. In Boekel it is part of the amount. The large differences in the amounts feel unfair, especially given the fact that refugees often have no control over which municipalities they will end up in - the COA determines which municipality they are linked to. Annemiek Bots of asylum seeker and refugee organization Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland calls for more equality. "You as refugee get linked to a municipality. A refugee therefore has no say over where he will live. It therefore constitutes legal inequality if in one municipality you get a loan and in another municipality you get money", she said to Omroep Brabant. She added that this is the first time she's heard of a refugee family getting an amount as high as 10 thousand euros without having to pay it back. The BD report caused quite a stir in Dutch politics. PVV leader Geert Wilders called it "madness" and "discrimination" against Dutch on Twitter. "Hey Asscher (Deputy Prime Minister Lodewijk Asscher, ed) and Public Prosecutor, why don't you address this DISCRIMINATION? For 'refugee' but not for Dutch?" he tweeted. Joram van Klaveren of VNL set parliamentary questions about the matter. https://twitter.com/geertwilderspvv/status/736105044185993218/photo/1?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw