The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) asked eight provinces on Thursday to find a total of 2,600 emergency reception places for asylum seekers before the end of July. The organization is not sure whether there are enough reception places in the Netherlands.
The COA sent the call to Gelderland, Limburg, Noord-Brabant, Noord-Holland, Overijssel, Utrecht, Zeeland and Zuid-Holland. These provinces do not meet the number of reception places agreed in the Distribution Act. That law should ensure that asylum seekers are better distributed across the country.
In the letter, the COA asks the eight provinces “to think with us about possible solutions to quickly realize 325 extra emergency reception places per province together with us”. The body says it wants to “prevent us from having to overwhelm municipalities with urgent requests by that time”.
Former Minister Marjolein Faber (Asylum) had asked municipalities to find 101,500 reception places by July 1. When the deadline expired, the counter stood at 74,500 reception places.
According to the COA, almost three-quarters of the municipalities met the number of reception places “wholly or partly”. Of the provinces, only Groningen, Friesland, Drenthe and Flevoland had arranged enough reception places.