Lack of structural funding making asylum reception unnecessarily expensive: COA
The costs of asylum reception can be drastically reduced if the government commits to structural financing, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) said in its Status of Implementation report. “The lack of this smart and sound financing makes asylum reception unnecessarily expensive, vulnerable, and inefficient,” the agency said, NOS reports.
The COA has reported multiple times in recent years that it is spending a fortune on emergency shelters for asylum seekers, where they typically spend a few days before they have to move on to the next shelter. In this report, which describes the daily bottlenecks within the asylum reception chain, the COA called unstable reception “the mother” of all its problems.
“Stability and peace in reception are crucial for residents, employees, and municipalities. In order to achieve this, sound financing is needed in addition to the distribution law,” COA director Joeri Kapteijns said. “We do not want more money, but less money to spend on asylum reception.”
The COA wants the government to commit to multi-year financing in which it can realise several stable basic reception places. These places can be used by home seekers if they are not needed for asylum shelter, the agency said.
The lack of structural funding is also making it more difficult for the COA to make agreements with municipalities about reception locations. The Asylum Distribution Law, which obliges municipalities to take in a fair share of asylum seekers, has resulted in more municipalities opening shelters. But partly because the COA can’t guarantee that it can pay for the location long-term, many of these shelters are temporary.
As a result, asylum reception remains dependent on emergency shelter. “That is harmful to residents and children in particular. Due ot the temporary locations, they have to move too often.” The COA asked the Cabinet to include structural, multi-year funding for asylum reception in the next budget.
The Schoof I Cabinet planned to abolish the Asylum Distribution Law, but PVV Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber did not get that far before her party leader, Geert Wilders, toppled the government. The PVV is now trying again to scrap the law through a proposal to amend the Asylum Emergency Measures Law, which will be discussed in parliament on Thursday. PVV parliamentarian Marina Vondeling also wants to make being undocumented a criminal offense, ANP reported.
