The town of Brummen, in the province of Gelderland, eastern Netherlands, boasts a castle, grand manor houses, charming boutiques and fields where Ouessant sheep graze. All of that, as well as one pressing question: Can this affluent community of 21,000 residents host a reception center (AZC) for 350 asylum seekers?
The project was expected to relieve pressure on one of the 300 other such facilities, managed throughout the Netherlands by the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA). It seemed on track for completion, but after being developed two years ago, it ran into the new political reality of the country: that of Geert Wilders’s far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), which became the largest party in the snap legislative elections of November 2023, and which, according to the polls, is expected to retain its lead after the next vote on Wednesday, October 29.
Demanding «the strictest policy» on immigration, the closing of borders, the return of Syrians to their homeland, criminalizing any assistance to undocumented migrants and shutting down asylum centers, Wilders – with the help of one of his loyal allies, Marjolein Faber, minister for asylum and migration – has succeeded in focusing the debate on the AZC system.
You have 80.87% of this article left to read. The rest is for subscribers only.
