# Bunschoten council votes to explore court bid against asylum law

> Four of five parties in the Utrecht-province town want to know whether the courts can delay or stop forced asylum reception. A plan is due for the asylum minister before 19 November.

Migration · published 2026-11-08 08:49 · https://nlnow.nl/a/bunschoten-council-votes-to-explore-court-bid-against-asylum-law/

Bunschoten's municipal council has voted to investigate what legal steps the town can take against the national dispersal law, the Spreidingswet. CAP, VVD, CDA and SGP backed a motion asking whether forced reception of asylum seekers can be "significantly delayed or stopped altogether" through the courts.

Under the law, Bunschoten must provide 137 reception places for asylum seekers. The municipality must present a strategy to asylum minister Van den Brink before 19 November.

The motion also asks the council to look at whether the national government can be forced by legal means to cut the number of asylum seekers, speed up procedures and send back "hopeless" asylum seekers faster. It proposes doing so together with like-minded municipalities that refuse reception.

The ChristenUnie, the largest party on the council, was the only one not to support it. Its group leader, Alma Broekmaat-Hagens, said a legal fight with central government does not help build support. "As far as we're concerned, the council should be focused on finding solutions that are fair to residents and to our legal responsibility," she said.

A second motion, adopted unanimously, sets out thirteen demands for the strategy. They include taking in no more asylum seekers than the law requires, a scale that always fits Bunschoten, no displacement of local residents, and the national government and COA paying all costs.

Alderman Dolf Huijgen (CAP), who has under two weeks to finish the strategy, said the executive will follow the motion as far as possible. "We see some hurdles and caveats about whether it is all feasible, but the thrust is clear to us."

Before the debate, all council groups condemned the violence at Wednesday evening's protest against an asylum centre. Alfred de Graaf of CAP De Dorpspartij said: "We understand residents' concerns very well. We share them." Having concerns, he stressed, does not mean you may use violence.

## Background

- **Spreidingswet**: The law that spreads the reception of asylum seekers across Dutch municipalities. Each province and municipality is asked to provide a share of the places; a municipality that does not can be placed under supervision and, in the end, instructed by the minister.
- **COA (Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers)**: The independent government body that houses and looks after asylum seekers while their applications are processed. It runs reception centres across the country and falls under the minister responsible for asylum and migration.
- **ChristenUnie**: The ChristenUnie is a Dutch Christian political party, known in English as the Christian Union. It holds seats in the national House of Representatives (Tweede Kamer) and in municipal councils across the Netherlands, where it takes part in local decision-making alongside other parties.

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