Refugee settlement agency COA is facing fines for failing to close three asylum seeker shelters by the agreed deadline.
A centre in the Overijssel town of Hardenberg and an emergency location in the nearby village of Loozen should have closed on March 8 after being open for the maximum 10 years.
But the COA has been unable to find alternative arrangements for all the residents — 427 in the main centre and five in the emergency accommodation — prompting the local council to impose fines.
It wants €55,000 per day for every day the main centre remains open past the new deadline of March 24 and €7,500 a day for the emergency accommodation. The failure to close the centres could leave the agency with an €11 million bill.
“We are doing all we can to offer people a new location but we have not been able to do so,” a COA spokesman told news agency ANP. “A fine does not solve the problem and we cannot turn people out onto the street.”
The town of Epe is also planning to fine COA for failing to find an alternative for the hotel accommodation provided to 268 refugees for the past two years. That permit expired last Friday.
Epe says that if the refugees are not removed, it will fine the COA €17,250 per day, up to a maximum of €3.1 million. The council has given the agency one week to respond.
Immigration minister Bart van den Brink told RTL that the looming fines show how serious the shortage of accommodation for refugees is. He said he understood the frustration facing local councils but that there simply are not enough places.
Talks are underway with other councils, he said, but “I cannot offer an instant solution”.
The Netherlands has legislation which is supposed to ensure that all 342 local authorities take their fair share of refugees, but dozens have failed to provide any accommodation at all.
