Nobody is really happy with the asylum deal of the cabinet: after all, the coalition parties have reached a compromise and the opposition also strongly criticizes.
After months of chaos around application center Ter Apel, the cabinet came up with a deal yesterday afternoon that should offer solace. On the one hand, family reunifications are being delayed, on the other, there will be 740 million euros for flexible housing and shelter. But coalition parties VVD and ChristenUnie, for example, mainly highlight the parts of the agreements that are favorable to them. The stricter parts, such as pausing family reunification, is a victory for the VVD, while the ChristenUnie is happy with smaller-scale reception.
The fact that 1,250 refugees will be placed elsewhere in Europe instead of in our country is another example: the VVD speaks of less influx, ChristenUnie calls it ‘painful’.
The CDA calls the measures ‘necessary to put the reception in order and to regain control over migration’, according to CDA Member of Parliament Anne Kuik. “We have made a mess of our asylum reception. It’s good that the cabinet now offers structural and emergency solutions,” says D66 member Anne-Marijke Podt.
The VVD says it will ‘monitor closely’ whether the measures are sufficient to solve the asylum crisis. Although the cabinet is still working on a law to force municipalities to receive asylum seekers, as was done in Tubbergen, the VVD wants to get rid of this, says VVD MP Ruben Brekelmans.
Mixed feelings
The ChristenUnie says it is left with ‘mixed feelings’ about the measures, writes CU Member of Parliament Don Ceder in a blog on the party site. The tightening of family reunification (following family members) is particularly difficult for the party. The parliamentary group does support a number of other measures, such as those for Ter Apel. ‘I hope that we will soon no longer see this embarrassing situation for the Netherlands and that we will never see it again.’
The opposition mainly criticizes the package. GroenLinks believes that the rights of refugees are further curtailed. Volt Member of Parliament Marieke Koekkoek calls it ‘extremely bitter’ that an asylum crisis has arisen as a result of ‘conscious policy’ by the cabinet, and that the cabinet will limit the asylum influx as a ‘solution’ and make family reunification more difficult.
Asylum stop not possible
PVV, Group Van Haga and JA21 think the plans do not go far enough. The three groups have been calling for an asylum ban for some time now. But that is not possible, Prime Minister Mark Rutte said on Friday. “An asylum stop is not possible. Then we have to leave the European Union, that is not possible.”
It also stings PVV leader Geert Wilders that more rental properties go to status holders. The percentage of rented houses that will become available to them will be temporarily increased from 8 to 12 percent. More flexible housing will also be built, one third of which will go to status holders and two thirds to other home seekers. This means that the share of people who have received a residence permit is much higher than normal. Normally, according to the cabinet, about 5 to 10 percent of the homes go to status holders.
Theft of houses and money
According to housing minister Hugo de Jonge, this is justifiable. “Otherwise you have to open one or two new asylum seekers’ centers every week.”
However, Wilders calls this ‘filthy theft of our houses and our money’. ‘For all those profiteers and freeloaders. Now you have really touched the Dutch souls, we will never forgive you for this,” he wrote to Rutte on Twitter.
Criticism is also heard from the implementing bodies. The Netherlands Council for Refugees points out the filthy toilets and the lack of hygiene on the field in front of the application center in Ter Apel. That must be empty no later than September 10, but that follows weeks of chaos. The Dutch Council for Refugees does not understand why it is only now taking action. “I’m there with some regularity and it’s just dirty, dirty and irresponsible,” said CEO Frank Candel in the statement. NOS Radio 1 News.
According to him, the Ministry’s inspection service has been to Ter Apel before, so he does not understand why action is only now being taken.
On Friday evening, hundreds more asylum seekers were evacuated and taken to other locations. Yet several hundred still slept outside, they were afraid to leave for fear that their application would then be processed later.
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