Dutch gov’t auditing body says budget for asylum reception too low

By Ahmet Gencturk

ANKARA (AA) – The amount allocated in the Netherlands’ state budget for asylum reception is too low, a government auditing body said in a report released Wednesday.

Pointing out that the government budgeted only around €500 million ($540 million) last year for the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), the Netherlands Court of Audit said in its report that “in the course of the year, however, it became clear that the COA would need an additional billion euros because the number of asylum seekers and the costs incurred for them were far higher than foreseen.”

“The budget for asylum reception has been too low in 21 of the past 23 years,” it added.

According to the report, the pressure on reception capacity is due not only to the high inflow of asylum seekers but also to the low outflow of asylum seekers who are entitled to housing because of a mainly tight housing and the labor market and municipalities’ growing reluctance to open reception locations.

In addition, it said, many municipalities argued they did not have enough capacity to house both asylum seekers and displaced Ukrainians.