[Nicky91]

After months of negotiations the Dutch government has reached agreement on setting up emergency shelters for failed asylum seekers who cannot, or will not, leave the country, junior immigration minister Mark Harbers has told MPs.

‘We have been in talks about realising the coalition agreement and I expect it to be finalised before the end of the year,’ Harbers said during a debate on the justice ministry budget on Thursday evening.

The state is picking up the €48m bill for the shelters, which will offer basic bed, food and board to refugees who have been living on the streets or in squats. Refugees can stay at the shelters if they agree to work towards their return.

Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Eindhoven and Groningen will each host one shelter for a period of three years. If the new approach is successful, and more refugees have gone home, it will be expanded to three more locations, broadcaster NOS said.

Other shelters already operated by local authorities can remain open but the state will not fund them and they must reduce their size.

The four coalition parties have been divided on the question of providing beds for failed refugees but refugee groups say the current plans are unrealistic because many people cannot get the documents they need to return.

Problem

Ministers and local government officials have been grappling with the problem of failed asylum seekers for years.

At the moment, refugees who fail in their applications for asylum are evicted from refugee centres and expected to return home. Thousands have ended up living rough or in emergency accommodation run by churches and other charities.

One group of around 100 people, many from Somalia and Yemen, have been drifting round Amsterdam several years, squatting in empty buildings including a church and a car park.

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2018/11/130780/


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Harbers



our immigration minister Mark Harbers