The municipality of Waalwijk will receive 238 Ukrainian refugees and status holders in an empty hotel. The group will be housed in the former NH Hotel in the village of Sprang-Capelle, the municipality writes on Thursday afternoon in a news item.
The first residents will arrive next month. The hotel, which is owned by Van der Valk, will be used as a reception location for a maximum of one year. There are no houses in the immediate vicinity, people who live further away have been informed of the plans by the municipality. Waalwijk will have the reception location secured 24 hours a day and has called on volunteers who want to help with tasks to report.
The municipality calls the living conditions “good, but sober and efficient”. “The Ukrainian refugees and status holders will work to fill in the day if possible,” the news item reads. “The status holders can start their integration.”
Also read: How the government can force the municipality of Tubbergen to provide asylum
Tubbergen
Earlier this week, plans to accommodate asylum seekers in a hotel in Albergen in Overijssel caused a stir. Residents demonstrated at the future asylum seekers’ center and started a campaign to buy the property – in order to prevent asylum seekers from entering. That plan turned out to be futile: the COA announced that the final purchase contract has already been signed. It can be used from 1 September.
Tubbergen, which Albergen falls under, is the first municipality to deal with a so-called coercive measure from the government. Municipalities were previously urged to create reception centers, but this remained on a voluntary basis. When this turned out not to be enough to get enough places, State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum and Migration, VVD) used his authority to force Tubbergen to accept asylum seekers.
On Thursday afternoon, figures from the Ministry of Justice and Security showed that the number of beds intended for Ukrainians is 95 percent occupied, 57,000 of the 60,000 are currently filled. Never before has this percentage been so high.
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