Netherlands: Bed & Board deals for failed asylum seekers
 

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

https://www.parlement.com/9353000/1/...;amp;lm=lce0dx

our immigration minister Mark Harbers

get them out

now

yes also irony of them giving these shelters to failed asylum seekers, when

https://www.dutchnews.nl/news/2018/1...ys-new-report/

1 million people in NL are poor


bit hypocrite to give shelter and money to failed asylum seekers, when many dutch people are poor :notimpressed:

quite right Nicky

Nicky this should be on BBC2HD Politics Live at 12:15PM

But I bet it is not

no it isn't, it was on our breakfast news early in the morning here, irony at the ''1 million people in NL are poor'' article first and then this ''help, shelter, money for failed asylum seekers''

You should send this link to BBC Politics Live
for a future show

I bet your dad is fuming

no more laughing, what a joke our politics has become

"Will not leave" ... so remove them?

Yes take them back by Ship
could be set up

no some cannot leave to their own countries due to wars or other political conflict there

Arista had a good idea to ship them to Ireland and get them working