The crisis in the shelter for asylum seekers will not be resolved before the end of the year. According to documents from the Central Office for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), available to RTL Nieuws, at least 10,000 places are expected to be missing on January 1st.

State Secretary Van der Burg’s plan (asylum) does not seem to be working. He agreed with the municipalities that from January 1st they would no longer be responsible for crisis emergency care, but that COA would take care of this care.

‘Not realistic’

But the pressure on the reception remains so high that by the end of this year 51,000 places for COA should be available. “It is unrealistic to assume that this will be achieved in such a short time,” the documents say.

This means that emergency crisis care by the municipalities will also be necessary after January 1st. “As long as the national reception capacity is not sufficient overall, there can be no question of a gradual abolition of (crisis) emergency rooms,” the COA concludes, according to RTL Nieuws.

The Justice and Security Ministry acknowledges the problems in a response to the NOS. A spokesman emphasizes that hard work is being done “daily” with the security regions to compensate for the bottlenecks, but also says: “Yes, we are currently missing thousands of admission places before the start of the new year and it remains a crisis. The reality is that the problems that have built up over years cannot be solved in months.”

Asylum chain stuck

Part of the problem is that many shelters are temporary and will expire on January 1st. This means that around 10,000 places are missing. The Secretary of State hopes that the municipalities will do more to improve the flow of traffic.

He agreed with them that 20,000 apartments will be sought for status holders or those with residence permits. They are now occupying places in the asylum accommodation because there are no houses available for them.

According to the COA, it does not seem realistic that this deficiency can also be made up for by the end of the year, since fewer than 8,000 status holders have received a place since July 1st. “At the outflow rate since July 1, the outflow of 20,000 licensees is still a long way off.”

State Secretary Van der Burg is currently working on his bill to better distribute asylum seekers around the country. This proposal was delayed because of opposition from his own party, the VVD. He doesn’t want to talk about forcing municipalities to accept asylum seekers. He intends to present the draft law at the end of next week, before the fall break.

Troubled summer

Riots broke out last summer when the cabinet walked past the municipality of Tubbergen in Overijssel while setting up a reception center for asylum seekers. The COA bought a hotel, which sparked protests and outrage among community residents.

Before that, asylum seekers in the asylum seeker center in Ter Apel regularly had to sleep on chairs or outdoors because there were not enough places. This led to the first-ever mission of the aid organization Doctors Without Borders in the Netherlands.