The Netherlands closed a large refugee center: what option is available for Ukrainians.

In the Netherlands, the reception center for Ukrainian refugees in the city of Utrecht was completely closed. The shelter is overcrowded because there is nowhere to resettle people. The center will open when more places for long-term accommodation are created in the country. This is reported by RTV Utreht.

The center for Ukrainians at HUB Jaarbeurs in Utrecht is a place where newly arrived refugees from Ukraine could stay for a short Time until they are resettled in long-term housing in the regions.

On August 19, the Utrecht Security Region announced that the reception center was closing completely. The reason is overcrowding. "It is impossible to transfer people placed at HUB Jaarbeurs to other places in the country. The occupancy rate of reception points across the country is 99.8%, with approximately 100 beds left for accommodation," explained the government organization.

It is noted that more than 300 Ukrainians, mostly families with children, arrive in the Netherlands every week. The Jaarbeurs center will be able to reopen only if additional places for long-term shelter are created in the country.

The center is designed to accommodate 140 people who could catch their breath for 24 hours before getting housing elsewhere in the country. Because there is nowhere to resettle people, the newly arrived are delayed for a long time and do not free up space for the next people.

Since the end of February, Jaarbeurs has provided places only to vulnerable people. This was the last such center in the Netherlands that still hosted newcomers.

"The vulnerable are women and children, families with underage children, people over 70 years old, and people with acute psychological or chronic physical conditions. Since mostly families with children are now applying, the maximum intake was reached in a short time," reported the Security Region.

What should new refugees do?

The Security Region and the municipality of Utrecht stated that they regret the closure of the center, but the reception of Ukrainians is a state task that must be solved by the central government. The Refugee Council calls on the government to take control of the problems with the reception of Ukrainian refugees.

Now newcomers who register for the first time have to find housing on their own. The refugee work organization is concerned that people are being sent from municipality to municipality and cannot find shelter. In the past few weeks, they have received several reports of people sleeping on the street or in cars because they couldn't find a place. On the page for Ukrainian refugees help-ukraine.nl, due to the closure of reception centers, they suggest using international platforms for finding housing, such as booking.com, Airbnb.

By the way, the attitude towards refugees and immigrants in the Netherlands is becoming stricter, regardless of the political views of the country's citizens.