Amsterdam to fund basic shelter for undocumented migrants from own pocket
Undocumented migrants and failed asylum seekers will continue to have access to basic shelter in Amsterdam, the municipality said in response to the plan in the new national government’s coalition agreement to scrap funding for the bed-bath-and-bread scheme. If the Schoof I Cabinet scraps funding, Amsterdam will pay for the shelter, guidance, and care itself in 2025. It will figure out how to continue the scheme after 2025 in the autumn.
Since 2019, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Groningen, Eindhoven, and Utrecht have offered basic shelter - bed, bath, and bread - to undocumented migrants and asylum seekers who have exhausted all legal remedies through the “National Alien Facility” (LVV) pilot, partly funded by the national government. Last week, the mayors of these municipalities sent a letter to Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber, pleading with her not to scrap funding for the scheme.
“The reception of undocumented migrants through the LVV pilot has ensured peace in the city,” Amsterdam alderman Rutger Groot Wassink (shelter) said in a press release on Tuesday. “The nuisance caused by squatters has disappeared, people are treated humanely, and the participants in the LVV are given time to work on their future. Research shows that there is still perspective for many people.”
Since 2019, Amsterdam has had 500 shelter spaces in the LVV pilot. The city has helped 1,062 people through the scheme. “A total of 779 people have left, and an immediate sustainable solution has been achieved for 271 people (35%) in the field of return to country of origin, onward migration, or lawful residence in the Netherlands,” the municipality said. The final evaluation of the pilot in November 2022 stated that the scheme clearly contributes to solutions surrounding undocumented migrants, improves participants' well-being, and contributes to public order.
Groot Wassink called it “extremely unwise” of the national government to terminate this scheme. “Which is why we are forced to arrange shelter for the coming year ourselves.” In the autumn, the city will see how it can continue this shelter after 2025.
