Placing asylum seekers in hotels is three times as expensive as using a formal refugee centre run by settlement agency COA, junior justice minister Eric van der Burg has said in answer to MPs’ questions.

The average cost of a hotel bed runs to €91,000 per person per year, while a COA-run centre costs an average of €29,400 a year, the minister said. The figures, from 2023, are an initial estimate.

The average cost of an emergency bed – whether hotel, tent, cruise ship, or sports all, is €52,400 – twice that of a bed in an ordinary centre.

Van der Burg has been looking to put some 3,500 asylum seekers in hotels because of the shortage of COA beds.

COA regular and emergency shelters are currently providing beds for almost 65,000 people, but 19,000 of them have been given residency permits and should have moved into normal housing.

However, the shortage of housing in general in the Netherlands means there is nowhere for them to go, further adding to the pressure on refugee accommodation.  

Fair shares

The new government plans to scrap legislation requiring all Dutch local authorities to take their fair share of refugees, and that has already led to some councils halting work on finding suitable places for new arrivals to live.

According to the COA, between 2,000 and 2,500 beds threaten to disappear in the short term.

Because of capacity problems in terms of both housing and processing refugee claims, the minister said he expects the Netherlands will need 97,500 beds for asylum seekers and refugees next year.