Amsterdam plans to temporarily house at least 1000 migrants on a cruise ship moored in its harbor. The passenger vessel will remain in Amsterdam for at least 6 months. It is not yet in Port Amsterdam but should be in use from October 1.
It comes as The Netherlands deals with an accommodation crisis that saw hundreds of asylum seekers sleeping outside a reception center last week.
Amsterdam has become the second city in Holland to approve plans for putting migrants up on a liner. In both cases the vessels will be moored, so residents can enter/exit at all times.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte said last week that he was ashamed of the situation at the asylum reception center in the Ter Apel village, where ~700 migrants were forced to sleep outside in unsanitary conditions.
According to Rutger Groot Wassink (city alderman/member of a municipal assembly or council), the situation in Ter Apel was heartbreaking, and together they had to solve the shortage of accommodation so that refugees could find a place.
He described the ship as a temporary short-term solution and added the Dutch government needed to work with municipalities in order to reform the asylum system of the country.