The Netherlands shortage in asylum shelter space is about to get much worse. The contracts for over half of existing shelters expire this year, Trouw reports based on figures from the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA).
The BBB believes the government should give serious consideration to returning Ukrainian refugees to safe parts of the country. “We cannot accommodate everyone here,” said BBB MP Mona Keijzer in a parliamentary debate on asylum and migration. Her political party is one of four negotiating to form a new Cabinet, along with the PVV, NSC and VVD. Separately, State Secretary Eric van der Burg, the VVD politician in charge of the current caretaker Cabinet's asylum policy, thinks he’ll need at least 600 million euros extra this year to accommodate all asylum seekers, he said in the debate.
VVD parliamentarian Ruben Brekelmans received criticism in the Tweede Kamer, the lower house of the Dutch parliament, in the debate on the asylum seeker distribution law. Former coalition partners D66, CDA, and ChristenUnie (CU), in particular, strongly criticized the VVD’s backpedaling after the fall of the Cabinet in early July. The VVD is now strongly against the distribution law, while the Liberals supported it until July.
A tearful State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum Affairs) is disappointed that there is no asylum agreement. He finds it particularly galling for all those who have been working for months to find enough reception places for asylum seekers. "I had promised them an asylum agreement," he said.