The war, which has been going on for more than three years, continues to throw Ukrainians far beyond the borders of the Motherland in search of safety and protection. Hundreds of thousands of families who fled from Russian missiles and occupation settled in Europe, hoping to find there not just a temporary shelter, but a chance to feel like people again. However, the reality is increasingly harsh — the Netherlands, which yesterday seemed to many Ukrainians to be one of the most prosperous and comfortable destinations for evacuation, today directly declares: there are no more places.
The municipality of Amsterdam has been forced to refuse Ukrainian refugees for the past few weeks because there is not enough space for them in the city. Such a situation has arisen for the first time – there is not enough free space throughout the country, warned the chairman of the council Rutger Groot Wassink. And these are not temporary difficulties – we are talking about a systemic collapse that rapidly covers the entire country. This is stated in the NL Times report.
Rutger Groot Wassink emphasized:
“We have reached the sad moment when the Netherlands can no longer accept any refugee from Ukraine. And with this, we are rejecting the Ukrainian people. The consequences of such a decision are catastrophic not only for specific people who are left homeless, but also for the state as a whole. This does not just mean a refusal to stay overnight. It means the lack of registration in the population base, lack of access to medicine, education and even the right to work. These people simply disappear from the state’s field of view.”.
According to him, it is also impossible to resettle people to other cities — there were only 35 free places in shelters across the country at that time.
The mayor of Amsterdam also harshly criticized the central government of the Netherlands, which he said is not doing enough to solve the crisis. Moreover, the government’s actions are only making the situation worse — the amount of funding that municipalities receive for each Ukrainian refugee was recently reduced. If earlier the local government received 61 euros per day for one Ukrainian, now it is only 44 euros. This is banally not enough to provide people with basic things – food, a roof over their heads, basic living conditions.
“This makes the placement of Ukrainians an overwhelming task for municipalities. We cannot take responsibility for what we ourselves are physically unable to provide.”, — said Groot Wassink.
He called on the Minister of Asylum and Migration of the Netherlands, Marjolein Faber, to immediately take control of the situation, centrally organize the refugee accommodation system and ensure adequate funding.
It is worth noting that the minister herself admitted in February that Ukrainians who officially work in the Netherlands and pay taxes are doing their best for the country and have the right to support and the prospect of staying in the country longer.
However, the situation is only getting worse. The Association of Municipalities of the Netherlands warned at the end of last year about the threat of the collapse of the system of reception of Ukrainian refugees. But nothing was done. Now the big cities — Amsterdam, The Hague, Rotterdam, and Utrecht — have joined the problem, and in a joint letter to the parliament, they directly stated: the situation is getting out of control, there is no leadership and organization.
And all this is against the backdrop of a rapid increase in the number of Ukrainians applying for help. According to the Red Cross, the number of requests for help from Ukrainian refugees in the Netherlands doubled in February. If in December and January, 200 people applied for help, then already in February – more than 400. Moreover, 18 people openly stated: they were forced to spend the night in the open air. Others slept in their own cars because they had no other way to shelter.
These people do not officially exist for the system — without registration, they have no access to medicine, education, or work. They remain in the worst position, effectively becoming invisible to the state.
Despite all the anxiety of the situation, the Dutch government continues to delay. Parliamentary debate on this issue is scheduled only for next Thursday. But won’t it be too late? After all, the numbers and facts speak for themselves — the Netherlands can no longer cope with the influx of Ukrainian refugees, and the first victims of this indifference were those who lost everything because of the war.
Now Ukrainian refugees in the Netherlands are faced with a terrible dilemma — either to survive on the streets in a foreign country without any protection, or to return to the place they fled from under shelling. And the responsibility for this does not lie with the local authorities of Amsterdam or The Hague, which simply do not have more opportunities physically, but with the Dutch government, which trivially washes its hands of itself.
And while Eurocents are counted in The Hague and new instructions are written, hundreds of Ukrainian families remain in the open air, in the center of Europe, among the prosperous streets of Amsterdam. This is the reality that awaits those who seek salvation in one of the richest countries in the world today.
