State Secretary Eric van der Burg reacts furiously to the attempt by residents of Tubbergen to buy a hotel to prevent status holders from coming to live. “It cannot be the case that the rich buy up a property and then no status holders come to live there.”
That is what the VVD minister for Asylum and Migration says on Friday when leaving the weekly Council of Ministers. There is a lot of protest against this purchase, both among local residents and the municipal authorities. Van der Burg is going to Tubbergen in the short term. He clearly has the asylum crisis in his stomach. “Last night a few hundred people slept outside again and that’s not what you want.”
In his response, the State Secretary also stated that he “really finds it very annoying” that the cabinet had to act in this way. By this he was referring to the fact that the cabinet has worked around the municipality and has bought the building for housing status holders. These are asylum seekers who have already received a residence permit. “We really need to have extra places in the Netherlands. That is why we already said some time ago that we will continue with reception locations,” said Van der Burg after the first Council of Ministers after the recess.
According to Prime Minister Mark Rutte, ‘intensive discussions are being held with municipalities and security regions about the accommodation of asylum seekers to get everything under control’. The VVD State Secretary appeals to municipalities. “I continue to call on municipalities to take their responsibility.”
no signal
Van der Burg does not think that municipalities should be notified earlier about such a purchase. “What you see is that we first have to buy such a property. In the past, it turned out that a property was quickly bought up to prevent an asylum seekers’ center from being built there. It cannot be that rich people can stop this,” said the minister.
The State Secretary emphasizes that status holders may be accommodated in hotels. Nor does it need to be consulted with municipalities. It is nice of the COA to report this, but everyone can rent a hotel. Unlike asylum seekers, status holders are people who have already been legally allowed to reside in the Netherlands.
The State Secretary for Asylum rejects the protestors’ attitude. He emphasizes that people ‘have the right to demonstrate’. “But keep in mind the people who stay there and stick to the rules,” he warns.
Whether the VVD minister expects a new Tubbergen in the short term? “No, I don’t expect that. But I am currently in full discussion about possibilities,” he told this news site. “I will have another conversation in two minutes,” said the liberal when he left the Council of Ministers, which was mainly dominated by the statements of CDA leader Hoekstra about nitrogen.
Hundreds of protesters
At the hotel in Albergen in the Overijssel municipality of Tubbergen, which was purchased by the COA, many demonstrators were on their feet several times. Several hundred residents were present for a local protest against the arrival of asylum seekers.
Fewer young people were present yesterday than on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings, when spontaneous counter-actions were held. A banner often criticized on social media with the text ‘keep Albergen clean’ was removed yesterday. In its place, four new banners have been hung with texts such as ‘there is no place for AOW’ers, this cabinet prefers asylum seekers’ and ‘a cozy village with 3000 neighbours, you cannot send 300 asylum seekers there. ‘.
Later in the evening, two boys brought a sign with the text ‘with 300 asylum seekers of color soon rape, robbery and terror in Albergen!’ Bystanders immediately intervened. According to one of the bystanders, that is not the message that the inhabitants of Albergen want to convey. “We are against the arrival of an asylum seekers center of this size, but certainly not against foreigners. We immediately approached the guys who came to bring this plate.” The sign was visible for a few seconds, but was immediately removed.
MPs in Tubbergen
JA21 leader Joost Eerdmans spoke to the residents of Albergen yesterday from a trailer. He indicated that he understood that the arrival of asylum seekers to the hotel was ‘like a thunderclap’. According to him, there are members of parliament ‘from left to right’ who think that Albergen is overwhelmed by the sale of the hotel to COA. “The sense of relationship, loyalty and mutual respect is gone,” says Eerdmans.
MP Pieter Omtzigt also visited Albergen, but this meeting was closed. He did indicate earlier on Twitter that he is asking parliamentary questions about the purchase of the hotel. After the conversation with local administrators and local residents, Omtzigt indicated that there is still a lot of misunderstanding in and around Albergen. That is why, according to the Member of Parliament, it is ‘of the utmost importance’ that the government explains the decision in which local democracy has been ‘sidelined’ in Albergen and Tubbergen. “Both the drivers and the local residents.”
On Tuesday it was announced that the cabinet wants to force the municipality to receive asylum seekers in the hotel. “That’s not how you treat people,” said Mayor Wilmien Haverkamp about the proposal. According to State Secretary Van der Burg, the coercive measure is necessary, since more space is needed for refugees in the Netherlands because the reception center in Ter Apel has been completely full for a long time. According to the COA, three hundred asylum seekers can be accommodated in Albergen.
Today it was also decided to give the police more powers at Ter Apel.
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