legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in ...

SOCIAL CONDITIONS FOR ASYLUM SEEKERS
Accommodation
Aliens seeking asylum in the Netherlands must submit their application in one of the three
Application Centres (“Aanmeldcentrum” – AC). A fourth AC, located in Ter Apel, is due to open in
the near future. If no place is available in the AC, they are housed in temporary facilities, usually
in tents. Applicants normally stay for only a couple of days in the application centres, however
their stay may sometimes last for one or two weeks.
Applicants whose claim is not immediately rejected under the accelerated procedure while they
stay in the AC, are then referred to a screening and reception centre (“Onderzoeks en
Opvangcentrum” – OC). However, since October 1998, asylum seekers processed under the
Dublin procedure are no longer entitled to receive accommodation or financial support (see below
under “The Dublin procedure and repeated asylum requests”).
The first phase of the asylum procedure takes place in the 16 OCs throughout the country, where
asylum seekers usually stay for several months. There they are offered recreational and socialcultural
activities. The average time spent here is between two and three months.
Applicants are then moved to a centre for asylum seekers (“Asielzoekerscentrum” – AZC) or to
other accommodation facilities, such as boarding houses or hostels.
At present, there are about 100 AZCs in the country and approximately 10,000 additional places
available in boarding houses and hostels. In almost all AZCs asylum seekers have facilities for
cooking their own meals. They may attend classes in Dutch language and society.
The AZCs are run by the Agency for the Reception of Asylum seekers (“Centraal Orgaan opvang
Asielzoekers” – COA), which has been especially established for this purpose and which comes
under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice.
Up to 1996, all asylum seekers still housed in an AZC after six months were offered
accommodation in houses owned or rented by the municipalities. Since 1996, asylum seekers
must stay in the centres until they have been granted a residence permit or have been rejected
according to a final decision. However, due to capacity problems caused by the long processing
times, temporary changes were made to the reception system in 1998. According to this, asylum
seekers, again, can be accommodated in unoccupied houses rented by the COA where they will
have full privacy, as opposed to the AVO’s which are run by a manager.
In addition, a “self-care arrangement” has been introduced, according to which asylum seekers
who have stayed in the AZCs for more than six months are allowed to live with family members or
friends. They are required to report to a centre nearby every week in order to collect their money.
Extra-financial assistance is granted to help them cover living expenses. In practice, many Dutch
municipalities have opposed this form of accommodation, which they consider to be
“uncontrollable”.
A new reception system is currently under discussion and will probably be introduced in 2000.
According to this proposal, asylum seekers will stay for a maximum period of one year in a centre
and if the procedure has not been terminated after one year, they will move to “small scale
reception places”, such as ordinary houses or flats. The review of these cases will not take place
in the screening and reception centres, as is the case now, but will be carried out in the regional
offices of the IND. Subsequently, the difference between screening and reception centres and
centres for asylum seekers will no longer exist. It is not yet decided whether the “self-care
arrangement” will be part of the new model or not.
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The Netherlands