‘AZC in Budel will be defense area again from 2028’

The asylum seekers’ center in the Brabant village of Budel will disappear and will be used again from 2028 by Defense, the owner of the site. That write RTL News and the NOS Thursday. According to the ANP news agency, the plan is expected to be in the National Room for Defense program, which has not yet been presented.

In 2028 the lease contract between the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) and Defense will expire. Defense then takes the location in use, because it needs more room for training, ammunition storage and practice flights because of the increased international threat.

The AZC in Budel, part of the municipality of Cranendonck, is the largest asylum seekers’ center in the Netherlands after Ter Apel and also contains a registration center. Asylum seekers have been taken care of since 2014; Currently, 1,500 people can stay.

Repeated

Just like the AZC in Ter Apel, the location in Budel has repeatedly been overcrowded. The problems that this caused were the reason for the previous cabinet to introduce the Spreading Act. That law is intended to better distribute asylum seekers over the country and thus remedy congestion in the asylum chain.

Cabinet-Schoof wants the Spreading Act again from February 2026 abolishwhich would raise the pressure on the AZC in Budel again. The AZC has also been struggling with incidents for years, especially with ‘Safeelanders’. These are asylum seekers from countries that are considered safe by the Dutch government. Mayor Roland van Kessel (VVD) cried That is why the current cabinet is running out in September to ‘permanently reduce’ nuisance ‘very quickly’.

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