The two Dutch coalition parties will on Monday resume talks aimed at finding a permanent solution for asylum seekers who have been refused refugee status.

The parties are divided over the provision of bed and board for rejected asylum seekers, following a Council of Europe ruling last week.

The Labour party says basic accommodation should be provided as a humanitarian gesture but the VVD Liberals fear this will attract more people to come to the Netherlands.

The talks were halted on Friday afternoon. According to the Telegraaf, VVD parliamentary party leader Halbe Zijlstra and deputy prime minister Lodewijk Asscher (Labour) had talks with Amsterdam’s mayor Eberhard van der Laan on Sunday.

Shelters

It is not clear what that meeting focused on, but Van der Laan backs setting up night shelters to cope with homeless asylum seekers.

The talks follow a ruling by the Council of Europe last Wednesday which said the Netherlands has to provide bed and board for undocumented people, but implied that it is up to the Dutch to decide how to do this.

The official Dutch policy is to evict people who have failed to qualify as refugees from refugee centres and to encourage them to return home. However, thousands have no paperwork or argue they cannot go back because it would be unsafe.

Critics

Several opposition party leaders at the weekend criticised the cabinet’s position and urged ministers to get down to proper business instead.

D66 leader Alexander Pechtold urged ministers to ‘go and run the country’.  ChristenUnie leader Arie Slob said it would be ‘deeply embarrassing’ if the coalition were to collapse over the question of illegal immigrants.

Both party leaders have helped the government get unpopular legislation through the senate.