Ten Dutch municipalities summoned for failing to meet legal asylum shelter requirements

Ten municipalities have been summoned to the Ministry of Asylum and Migration for their failure to meet legally required targets for recieved asylum seekers under the asylum distribution law.

The municipalities are Aalten, Achtkarspelen, Bergen in Limburg, Beverwijk, Gemert-Bakel, Overbetuwe, Sluis, Valkenswaard, Voerendaal and Westland.

According to Van den Brink, about 100 municipalities nationwide are currently not meeting their legal obligations under the asylum distribution law. He said more municipalities are expected to be called in for similar discussions after this initial group of ten.

Overall, municipalities across the country are collectively short by about 12,000 housing units for recognized refugees, and asylum reception centers are overcrowded.

Minister Bart van den Brink had previously issued written warnings to the municipalities for failing to meet their statutory obligations under the law, but those warnings were rejected. Attempts to resolve the issue through discussions with civil servants also failed.

Van den Brink will now meet directly with the mayors and aldermen of the ten municipalities in an effort to secure the creation of sufficient asylum reception sites. If those talks fail, he can, in extreme cases, issue permits for reception facilities himself. This would effectively bypass municipal approval.

The asylum distribution law, introduced in 2024, requires municipalities to take in a fair share of asylum seekers. It gives the central government authority to enforce those obligations if municipalities do not comply. The law sets binding quotas for each municipality based on factors such as population size.