Churches’ temporary housing initiative for status holders

◆7 sources

The Council of Churches in the Netherlands launched an initiative calling on local churches, parishes and religious communities to provide small-scale temporary accommodation, particularly for families with residence permits who are awaiting housing in their assigned municipality. It suggested locations including church annexes, empty rectories and holiday homes.

The proposed stays last three months, during which participants can get to know their new surroundings. The council said the initiative was developed with the ministry and the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), which is to arrange a move to another location after that period. The council said it had discussed the plan with asylum minister Van den Brink, who supports it.

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Immigration & Residency

Emergency call for additional asylum reception places

15 sources

Asylum Minister Bart van den Brink urged all municipalities to provide additional reception places, saying conditions at the Ter Apel registration centre are untenable after people had to sleep outside because there was no room. He said that without intervention there would be a shortage of 7,600 places by April, and called for existing sites to remain open longer, new sites to be created and the housing of residence-permit holders to be accelerated. The minister asked Gelderland to arrange 800 extra places and Flevoland and Overijssel 500 each; a separate report said Zeeland had also been asked for 500 temporary places. Flevoland was asked to provide 150 places by 1 November and 370 by 1 January. The cabinet also introduced a temporary emergency measure under which municipalities that rapidly provide emergency accommodation will not, for the time being, be held to their obligations under the Spreidingswet. Flevoland's province and municipalities had not yet responded, while Van den Brink later said he aims for voluntary cooperation rather than coercion.

Immigration & Residency

Asylum reception pressure in Ter Apel

12 sources

Twenty asylum seekers slept outside in the rain at the registration centre in Ter Apel during the night from Thursday to Friday after both the centre and emergency night shelters had reached capacity. The Red Cross and VluchtelingenWerk attributed this to a shortage of reception places. The Red Cross said it limited access to night shelter to people already known from day reception after safety incidents, while the COA described the situation as very painful. No one slept outside on the following two nights, although the two night shelters in Zuidwolde and Warffum had reached their combined maximum of 150 people. The municipality of Groningen is to provide 100 temporary beds from Wednesday at an existing emergency shelter on Europaweg for families with young children from Ter Apel. The places were arranged at the request of the Ministry of Asylum and Migration and are initially intended for three weeks. Pressure on the Ter Apel registration centre remains high.