> The distressing and untenable situation in Ter Apel requires immediate solutions, writes State Secretary Van der Burg in a letter to the Lower House.
> On the one hand, the Cabinet will take measures to limit the influx of asylum seekers. On the other hand, municipalities are working on 20,000 additional living places for status holders (asylum seekers with a residence permit) so that they can move on faster from the overcrowded asylum seekers’ centers, as was announced earlier today.
> In order to limit the influx, status holders are no longer allowed to have their families follow them if they have no housing. If after 15 months no housing has been found, these family members will still receive a visa.
> According to State Secretary Van der Burg, people will receive their visas as usual if they are entitled to them, but later. This temporary measure may relieve the pressure on the reception centers.
> There will be more time for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to assess whether applicants for a residence permit are entitled to it. The period for an application goes from 6 to 15 months.
> The Netherlands also temporarily suspends the obligation to take in 1000 refugees from camps in Turkey each year, a European agreement from the so-called ‘Turkey deal’. This should lead to 1000 fewer asylum seekers next year.
> The government is also releasing 15 million euros for an additional reception location. This location could offer “sober reception” from which asylum seekers could go to Ter Apel for the application procedure. Van der Burg said he hoped the location would be there by September 10 at the latest. Which location it will be, he could not say yet.
> The Ministry of Defence will also make a location available, but it is not yet clear which one.
> There can be no question of an asylum stop, which some parties in the House of Representatives are calling for, Prime Minister Rutte said at his weekly press conference. The Cabinet has said several times that an asylum stop is not possible, because the Netherlands is not an island and is bound by international agreements.
> The Cabinet is taking these measures now that the situation in the application center in Ter Apel is becoming increasingly distressing.
> For days now, hundreds of people have had to sleep outside. For the first time in history, the international aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières has come into action in the Netherlands. Yesterday, MSF went to Ter Apel with a team to provide care to asylum seekers who have to stay outside the gate.
> Rutte said he was ashamed of the situation in Ter Apel. When asked if there is administrative failure here, he replied, “Definitely.” But he added that the situation is complicated. “You can put a lot of analyses on it,” the prime minister said, but one of them is that reception spots were phased out too quickly after the crisis in Syria.
> Rutte spoke of a “lesson we have to learn.” He said, like State Secretary Van der Burg this morning, that the problems in Ter Apel will not be solved by tonight. But the prime minister stressed that everyone is doing their utmost to solve the problems.
It’s a shitshow.
They did the most minimal thing possible, pause family reunification until immigrants get free homes, which they get with priority over native Dutch who have to wait for years, 20.000 new homes will now be assigned to these immigrants with the government seizing property using old emergency laws that were supposed to be used in case of war and natural disasters and oh yes, 1000 less people will be brought over from Turkey, with 120.000 new people entering this country in the first half of this year alone.
I don’t blame people coming here in search for a better life, but it’s turning into fucking joke and the entire system is cracking. And it’s not just immigration either, crisis after crisis and scandal after scandal, this country is like a powder keg.
3 comments
> The distressing and untenable situation in Ter Apel requires immediate solutions, writes State Secretary Van der Burg in a letter to the Lower House.
> On the one hand, the Cabinet will take measures to limit the influx of asylum seekers. On the other hand, municipalities are working on 20,000 additional living places for status holders (asylum seekers with a residence permit) so that they can move on faster from the overcrowded asylum seekers’ centers, as was announced earlier today.
> In order to limit the influx, status holders are no longer allowed to have their families follow them if they have no housing. If after 15 months no housing has been found, these family members will still receive a visa.
> According to State Secretary Van der Burg, people will receive their visas as usual if they are entitled to them, but later. This temporary measure may relieve the pressure on the reception centers.
> There will be more time for the Immigration and Naturalization Service to assess whether applicants for a residence permit are entitled to it. The period for an application goes from 6 to 15 months.
> The Netherlands also temporarily suspends the obligation to take in 1000 refugees from camps in Turkey each year, a European agreement from the so-called ‘Turkey deal’. This should lead to 1000 fewer asylum seekers next year.
> The government is also releasing 15 million euros for an additional reception location. This location could offer “sober reception” from which asylum seekers could go to Ter Apel for the application procedure. Van der Burg said he hoped the location would be there by September 10 at the latest. Which location it will be, he could not say yet.
> The Ministry of Defence will also make a location available, but it is not yet clear which one.
> There can be no question of an asylum stop, which some parties in the House of Representatives are calling for, Prime Minister Rutte said at his weekly press conference. The Cabinet has said several times that an asylum stop is not possible, because the Netherlands is not an island and is bound by international agreements.
> The Cabinet is taking these measures now that the situation in the application center in Ter Apel is becoming increasingly distressing.
> For days now, hundreds of people have had to sleep outside. For the first time in history, the international aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières has come into action in the Netherlands. Yesterday, MSF went to Ter Apel with a team to provide care to asylum seekers who have to stay outside the gate.
> Rutte said he was ashamed of the situation in Ter Apel. When asked if there is administrative failure here, he replied, “Definitely.” But he added that the situation is complicated. “You can put a lot of analyses on it,” the prime minister said, but one of them is that reception spots were phased out too quickly after the crisis in Syria.
> Rutte spoke of a “lesson we have to learn.” He said, like State Secretary Van der Burg this morning, that the problems in Ter Apel will not be solved by tonight. But the prime minister stressed that everyone is doing their utmost to solve the problems.
It’s a shitshow.
They did the most minimal thing possible, pause family reunification until immigrants get free homes, which they get with priority over native Dutch who have to wait for years, 20.000 new homes will now be assigned to these immigrants with the government seizing property using old emergency laws that were supposed to be used in case of war and natural disasters and oh yes, 1000 less people will be brought over from Turkey, with 120.000 new people entering this country in the first half of this year alone.
I don’t blame people coming here in search for a better life, but it’s turning into fucking joke and the entire system is cracking. And it’s not just immigration either, crisis after crisis and scandal after scandal, this country is like a powder keg.