High influx of Ukrainian refugees putting Dutch capacities under pressure

Utrecht Mayor Sharon Dijksma (PvdA/S&D) has sounded the alarm as the Netherlands struggles to cope with a growing influx of Ukrainian refugees, with the country’s main asylum centre for Ukrainians in Utrecht at twice its capacity.

Ukrainian refugees arriving in the country are initially accommodated at the Jaarbeurs convention centre, where they are distributed among Dutch communities.

“We want to prevent people from sleeping outside, but because of the number of people who come [here], we have to start turning them away,” Dijksma stated during a press conference, calling on other communities to show “solidarity” concerning the city’s struggles.

Despite only having a capacity of 100 beds, the convention centre hosted 186 Ukrainians the night from Sunday to Monday.

The huge influx of Ukrainians has led to calls to adjust the country’s housing benefit system. Currently, working Ukrainian refugees benefit from free accommodation in the Netherlands and receive more financial benefits than ‘conventional’ refugees.

“Increasingly, we see people in municipal shelters who come from, say, Greece or Italy because they have heard that they get more money in the Netherlands,” Wouter Kolff, chairman of the National Security Advisory Board, told the Dutch public broadcaster NOS, adding that “we are running into limits and the end of the war is not in sight”.

Ukrainians who fled to the EU are subject to different rules than other refugees under the Temporary Protection Directive (TPD), which immediately grants them the right to work and social benefits like housing and medical care.

The Netherlands has long struggled to cope with the number of asylum seekers entering the country. Communities asked the cabinet to develop concrete long-term plans to accommodate Ukrainian refugees last year, many of whom face an uncertain future within the country.

Last month, a crisis was averted after Justice State Secretary Eric van der Burg (VVD/Renew) persuaded municipalities to provide additional shelters as figures rose. While van der Burg welcomed the additional shelter places, he said through a spokesman, ‘ it is [still] not enough’.

(Benedikt Stöckl | Euractiv.com)