Municipalities have asked the government to provide greater clarity regarding its long-term plan to continue accommodating Ukrainian refugees should future migration waves occur.
Municipalities feel they need more clarification from the government and also have a few ideas of their own, a survey conducted by NOS among 174 Dutch municipalities reads.
For example, municipalities indicated that access to psychological care and education is often inadequate and four in ten municipalities already have a shortage of reception places or fear shortage in the short term.
At the government level, Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra announced on Friday that the Dutch would be willing to receive Ukrainians were they to flee Russia’s invasion en masse again.
“We have always said that we are in favour of reception in our own region and this is our region,” he said, NOS reported.
Regarding Russia’s recent air strikes on the Ukrainian power grid, Hoekstra called them “outright scandalous”, adding that “this means that Putin is really targeting the civilian population.”
Refugees from Ukraine have been protected under the EU’s Temporary Protection Directive which since March, has helped them with accommodation, work, and education.
“By creating a refugee influx with people coming West, Putin thinks support will diminish,” former Army Commander Mart de Kruif also said.
(Sofia Stuart Leeson | EURACTIV.com)
Source: euractiv.com
