New asylum seekers center in Zwolle for 400 refugees

The Zwolle city council has approved the construction of an asylum seekers' center in a new part of the Stadshagen neighborhood. The center, scheduled for construction in 2027, will accommodate up to four hundred asylum seekers.

All the nine parties in the council, except for Swollwacht, indicated during the council meeting that they agreed with the asylum center, given as motivation that they felt strong responsibility for refugees. When the agreement took place unrest arose in the public gallery.

About 180 people were in the public gallery. It remained quiet for a long time, but the atmosphere shifted when councilor Anja Roelfs announced that the municipality would soon meet with local residents to discuss the future development of the asylum center. "You should have done that sooner, before this decision!" a woman shouted from the gallery.

Mayor Peter Snijders had her removed from the chamber which led to further unrest: several people left the chamber in anger and loud protests. Some attendees shouted insults at council members and tried to get closer, but were intercepted in time by the numerous security guards in the state chamber.

"Why should we listen to you, you don't listen to us either?" someone shouted when Mayor Peter Snijders repeatedly asked the audience to be quiet. A part of the audience left the room loudly shouting just before the formal vote. "What a puppet show, this is just to cry about," was among the shouts.

The local party "Swollwacht" was the only one who voted against the center and stated that the other parties were on a collision course with the residents and that they should withdraw the proposal.

Simultaneously, a large demonstration was taking place outside the provincial government building. Opponents of the asylum seekers' center stood in front, while supporters made themselves heard behind it, chanting slogans like "AZC welcome" and "There's no place for hate in Zwolle." The riot police kept the two groups strictly separated, with riot police and dogs on standby in the square below the provincial government building.

PVV leader Geert Wilders had also come to Zwolle to address several hundred opponents of an asylum seekers' center before the city council meeting. They had gathered in the square in front of the provincial government building, where the meeting was being held.

Future residents of the Tippe in Stadshagen are furious about the municipality of Zwolle's plans to establish a permanent asylum seekers center a short distance from their homes. In a strong letter to the city council, they call it complete deception.

"We were not informed about the possibility of an asylum seekers center at this location before the purchase!" they say. "In sales discussions, only a 'mixed purpose' was mentioned, which, according to them, referred to amenities such as culture, services, and recreation, and certainly not to a large-scale refugee center," they stated.

The location of the asylum seekers center is opposite the primary school and next to the main cycling route for children in the neighborhood, making it unsuitable for large-scale accommodation. Integration will be a process of trial and error with the necessary incidents, and it raises the question whether an area with many young children is a suitable place for this.