100 municipalities create new facilities for asylum seekers despite distribution law

Despite the asylum distribution law, about 100 municipalities in the Netherlands have set about setting up additional reception places for asylum seekers. These are temporary locations or the development of permanent homes for asylum seekers that have to be built, the Telegraaf reports.

Under the asylum distribution law, local authorities must create around 96,000 reception places for asylum seekers by mid-2025. Even though the Schoof Cabinet is currently discussing implementing an emergency asylum law, the municipalities are continuing with the old government's plans and looking for new shelters.

The municipalities cannot wait long for the strict asylum regulations the PVV Cabinet wants to enforce. Every day, the municipalities must deal with more asylum seekers and try to find a place for them in the reception centers. "At the moment, the strict asylum regulations promised by the Cabinet are not yet in force, and people are still coming to the Netherlands. The fact is that we already have a major reception problem," Jorrit Eijbersen (VVD), mayor of Hellendoorn, told the Telegraaf. His municipality is also working on a new asylum seeker center.

Hellendoorn is not the only municipality working on constructing new reception centers. Wijchen in Gelderland will also build an asylum seeker center for 300 people, and a new azc is due to open in Enschede by the end of the year.

Other municipalities are getting creative, and instead of building, they are concentrating on converting buildings that are empty or not in use. In Venlo, for example, former monasteries are to be converted to accommodate 600 asylum seekers.

Furthermore, around 300 asylum seekers will be accommodated in an empty office building in Haarlem from the end of 2024, and a tax office in Alkmaar will be converted into emergency accommodation. Even more space is to be created in Amsterdam: around 1,500 asylum seekers can be accommodated on the MS Galaxy ship.

However, some municipalities are postponing their plans or simply doing nothing due to the new cabinet's planned asylum laws. The municipality of Westland, for example, has not made any efforts to set up a new asylum seeker center since the distribution laws were introduced. The reason is that the municipality is waiting to see what happens with the distribution law. Therefore, there is no urgency to build new shelters.