No deal: Asylum housing talks end as PM’s party won’t force towns to do their share

The coalition parties still haven’t managed to agree on a new law intended to make sure that all municipalities take in their fair share of asylum seekers. Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s VVD is the party refusing to agree, sources told NOS. Municipalities had insisted that the government have a plan and policy in place for housing asylum seekers by today.

The VVD doesn’t want to force municipalities to take in asylum seekers and instead wants to focus on ensuring that fewer asylum seekers come to the Netherlands, the sources said.

On Friday, the VVD, D66, CDA, and ChristenUnie seemed close to a deal after State Secretary Eric van den Burg (Asylum, VVD) made some requested adjustments. The parties have been negotiating this law for months.

The VVD has always objected to Van der Burg’s plan to oblige municipalities to take in asylum seekers. But dozens of appeals to municipalities to voluntarily create space for people staying in terrible conditions at the asylum registration center in Ter Apel - hundreds of people had to sleep outside over the summer - have shown that force is necessary, according to the State Secretary.

In October, Van der Burg asked municipalities to make room for 1,700 unaccompanied child asylum seekers after the court ruled that the Dutch State cannot keep children and other vulnerable groups in the thread-bare crisis and emergency shelters. By last week, the municipalities had only managed to create 100 spots.

“The VVD faction is blocking [the asylum law] because it is afraid that its supporters will no longer take it,” political reporter Arjan Noorlander said to NOS. VVD voters have been dissatisfied with the lack of measures to keep asylum seekers out of the Netherlands. There is extra pressure on the party because it has a congress in two weeks, and members have already announced two critical motions against the migration policy.

“Now that there is still no new asylum law and municipalities had set an ultimatum, the Cabinet risks that municipalities will dig their heels into the sand and the reception problems will only get worse,” Noorlander said.