Minister welcomes churches housing refugees with residence permits

Asylum minister Bart van den Brink (CDA) has called the churches' plan to house status holders temporarily "very welcome", in a written answer to parliamentary questions received on 9 November. He said he is "very positive" about the initiative and that the effort helps take pressure off the overcrowded asylum system.

Actie Onderdak, an initiative of national churches, called on local faith communities on 20 October to offer temporary housing. The organisation says this can be a vacant vicarage, the church building or another home, with volunteers providing support, so that places in asylum centres are freed up for asylum seekers.

The first church housing opened in Apeldoorn, in a renovated vacant vicarage of the PKN congregation De Hofstad. A family has moved in. Van den Brink visited the house.

In his answer the minister said he admires the speed and enthusiasm with which volunteers set up small-scale housing. He also noted that status holders are no longer asylum seekers, and that municipalities are responsible for facilitating housing and contributing to work and integration.

Wilders wants a ban

The minister was responding to questions from PVV leader Geert Wilders. Wilders accused the churches of confusing mercy with helping the "Islamisation of the Netherlands" and called for a ban on such housing.

In the same answer, Van den Brink said the cabinet is working for strict application of European asylum rules and for reducing the number of arrivals, while the Netherlands must still protect those entitled to it.