No banners and pig heads but lawyers and the Code: increasingly ‘quiet’ protest against AZCs

The tuber cyperus is a stubborn weed that likes to nestle in agricultural crops. Dear, says lawyer Redmer Keizer, because it spreads so quickly. Before you know it, the tuber cyperus is everywhere and the entire agricultural land is infected.

But that is not why Redmer Keizer is worried about the tuber cyperus. He is the lawyer of the working group ‘Leave Heerle in Rust’, which is trying to stop an asylum seekers’ center in the village of Heerle in Noord-Brabant. And just leave the weed plant in the meadow where the new AZC is planned. As a result, it is not possible to build, says Keizer. « Otherwise it is no longer possible to combat the tuber cyperus in the ground. » He spoke about it last week in the city council who met about the plans.

That is how we found out that the COA also thought this location itself was a bad idea

On Wednesday evening, the Council of Roosendaal, which includes Heerle, decided to refrain from the AZC plans. On closer inspection, the location would not be suitable. That outcome led to a report of Bn de voice For loud applause, cheers and hugs at the hundred citizens present in the public gallery, who then went outside to the champagne.

This week it went in more municipalities. Also in Bedum in Groningen it was decided to abandon an intended location on Wednesday. On the same day, an information evening about an AZC had to be demolished prematurely in the Brabantse. Rioters tried to invade the room.

Promotion in silence

Banners, fireworks and pig heads: it is the aggressive protests against asylum seekers who often get the news. But there is also plenty of action in silence: by lawyers who try to block AZCs with letters, objection procedures and lawsuits.

Such as Redmer Keizer, who brought the Knolcyperus to the attention in Heerle. The weeds were not his only argument. « First we filed a procedure to request all documents about the plans, » says Keizer. By order of the judge, COA reception body had to release all its internal documents about the chosen location in Heerle. « That is how we found out that the COA also found this location itself a bad idea. The place is between a railway line, a highway and a waste processor. It is actually the worst conceivable location. »

With that, the objectioners were able to put pressure on local politics: why choose a place that is problematic even according to the COA? Moreover, was it not ‘inhumane’ for the asylum seekers to put their shelter next to a smelly waste processor? Partly on the basis of those arguments, the city council rejected the AZC plan on Wednesday.

Redmer Keizer says that he more often receives requests to assist local residents of intended AZCs. He was also called in to protest against an AZC in Brabantse Berlicum. But that turned out to be no longer necessary: ​​earlier this week the council itself put the plans in the refrigerator, after fierce protests.

The impact on flora and fauna has not been properly investigated and can have serious consequences for the landscape and protected animal species

The action group that wanted to legally challenged the reception in Berlicum stated that the housing of asylum seekers would be bad for nature. The location was planned in a « valuable nature reserve », the AA-Dal, the initiators said. « The impact on flora and fauna has not been properly investigated and can have serious consequences for the landscape and protected animal species. »

Odd

Nature is used more often by lawyers to thwart asylum reception. Next week, for example, a lawsuit on an AZC in the municipality of Baarn, brought by the ‘Behoud Het Brerebos’ foundation. He also says he is worried about the impact on nature. The rules would prescribe that no new buildings are allowed in the forest.

A Banketbakker in The Hague recently appealed to the requirements for odor nuisance and noise nuisance, in a lawsuit against an emergency shelter in the neighborhood. De Bakker won the case against the municipality of The Hague and the COA, which again has to investigate the impact of the location on the environmental requirements.

In Numansdorp in South Holland, it is called that local residents « are not against asylum reception, but against the chosen location »-they hired lawyer Mark West to challenge the plans. And there too, all administrative arguments were removed from the stable.

But can there be a suitable location somewhere, when local residents engage lawyers everywhere?

The area would not be ‘planologically’ intended as a reception location, it could only have an ‘agricultural function’. Moreover, the shelter would not fit within the « open landscape with characteristic views, » Mark West wrote in a letter « on behalf of a large number of residents from Numansdorp » at the beginning of November to the city council. After that, a consultation evening with five hundred participants took place.

That same month decided The municipality to abandon the plan, referring to some arguments from the lawyer’s letter: the asylum reception would, among other things, affect the ‘nature and landscape values’ and cause problems for the ‘traffic access’.

A wise decision, according to lawyer West, because the location at Numansdorp was ‘really not suitable’ according to him. But can there be a suitable location somewhere, when local residents engage lawyers everywhere? « There is probably a good location somewhere in the Netherlands, » says lawyer West. Where, he doesn’t know either.

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