Heibel at municipalities for emergency reception of asylum seekers: ‘This is ethically undesirable’ | Inland

On Tuesday morning, the mayors met on behalf of the 25 security regions in the Security Council about crisis emergency reception for asylum seekers. The idea is that over the next three months, 4 security regions, each for two weeks, will provide 150 emergency shelters for asylum seekers. It should take the pressure off the application center in Ter Apel, where more asylum seekers arrive every day than there are places. The emergency shelter comes on top of the existing reception in asylum seekers’ centers and is separate from the reception of asylum seekers who are allowed to stay, the so-called status holders, and from the 75,000 reception places for Ukrainian refugees that the municipalities have promised.

The 25 mayors have agreed to the plan for rotating crisis emergency shelter, according to the report of the meeting. There has even been talk of expanding to six times 150 places if the influx of asylum seekers increases even further. But that was not included in the North Holland-North safety region. The sixteen municipalities of this region see no point in such a reception carousel, they said after the deliberation. “From an ethical perspective, we find it undesirable that a situation threatens to arise in the coming period in which people who have already experienced a lot are moved from one temporary reception location to another temporary reception location,” the mayors of the region wrote to the State Secretary.

Solidarity

The region also believes that there should be ‘a balance’ ‘in the tasks facing the municipalities’. The sixteen North Holland mayors recognize that the problems in Ter Apel are serious. They believe that they have always shown solidarity with Ter Apel, with other municipalities and with COA. They want to ‘make that concrete’ by accelerating the accommodation of the 512 status holders instead of crisis emergency shelter for asylum seekers.

The COA, responsible for the reception, reacts diplomatically. “We are looking for shelter for all groups of asylum seekers,” says a spokesperson. “We see that there are already safety regions that realize locations. That helped us.” Currently, the regions of Amsterdam-Amstelland, Groningen, Friesland and Zeeland provide crisis emergency care on their own initiative.

A spokesperson for Van der Burg says that the letter from the mayors of North Holland has not been discussed in the Security Council. “There are several ways to contribute to the task at hand. We appreciate the efforts of municipalities.”

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