Amersfoort scraps asylum shelter plans after threats to mayor; Smoke bombs in Noordwijk
Following violent riots at an anti-asylum protest in The Hague on Saturday, the police also had to intervene at a meeting about plans for an asylum shelter in Noordwijk on Monday. People outside the meeting threw smoke bombs and lit fireworks at the entrance of the church where the meeting was held. No one was arrested. Amersfoort also announced that it was shelving plans for two shelters after its mayor was threatened last week.
The Noordwijk information evening was held in a church on Voorstraat. There was room for over 200 people inside. Nearly 200 other people gathered on the square near the church, where the municipality set up a live-stream of the meeting. According to Hart van Nederland, people on the square were waving Dutch flags and chanting “away with the asylum shelter,” translated from Dutch.
After a while, people outside started lighting smoke bombs and firecrackers and throwing them at the church’s entrance. The police intervened when they started throwing eggs at two journalists and a police car, according to NOS.
The police sent everyone on the square away. No one was arrested.
Amersfoort announced that it was shelving plans for two asylum shelters in the municipality. The office of the mayor and aldermen said that they did not pay enough attention to locals’ objections, and they apologized for that, RTL Nieuws reported.
Last week, it emerged that Amersfoort mayor Lucas Bolsius received phone threats regarding plans for the asylum shelters. A 35-year-old local was arrested for this on Friday. A spokesperson for the mayor told RTL that the decision to withdraw the plans was unrelated to the threat.
Following the riots in The Hague on Sunday, in which 37 people, including six children, were arrested, the association of Dutch municipalities, VNG, asked for an emergency meeting with the Cabinet. The municipalities want caretaker Prime Minister Dick Schoolf to take control of the situation and support them as they try to alleviate pressure on the asylum chain.
“Municipal governments are increasingly being hampered in their work,” Sharon Dijksma, Utrecht mayor and chair of the VNG, wrote to Schoof on Monday, AD reported. Public support for taking in asylum seekers is dwindling, and violence is increasing. But instead of support, municipalities primarily experience opposition from the national government, which “undermines” their work and the support for asylum reception.
The caretaker Shoof I Cabinet wants to reduce the number of asylum seekers that the Netherlands offers safety and shelter to. That’s all well and good, but it doesn’t alter the fact that the asylum system is currently bursting at the seams, and municipalities need to open shelters to prevent people from ending up on the streets.
