Invitation conference, 9 February: 'Flexible housing capacity in the Netherlands and Europe'

The EMN Netherlands Conference 2023 will focus on flexible housing capacity in the Netherlands and other EU Member States (plus Norway) in the context of international and temporary protection.National and European experts will join to discuss possible solutions to deal with the pressures on the asylum reception system and ensure flexible housing capacity. Practitioners, (inter)national experts and others interested in the topic are welcome to join.

Partly due to the varying influx of applicants for international protection and the limited outflow of beneficiaries of international protection to regular housing, the Netherlands as well as other Member States have experienced heightened pressures on the asylum reception system in recent years. Together with national and international experts we will discuss challenges, good practices as well as future lessons when it comes to dealing with pressures on the asylum housing system and the creation of flexible housing capacity, both in the context of international and temporary protection.

Program: in brief

• Ms. Rhodia Maas, Director-General of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND), and Mr. Joeri Kapteijns, vice chair Board of Directors, Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) will open the conference.
• EMN Netherlands will present the EMN Study on flexible housing capacity, including a comparative analysis of the similarities and differences between Member States.
• Presentations from national policy experts in the field of asylum reception capacity. Experts from Luxembourg, Norway, and the Netherlands will discuss their experiences with creating and ensuring flexible housing capacity.
• Expert panel discussion. Experts from various backgrounds (national government, local government/municipality, academia, ngo's) will address flexible housing capacity in the context of temporary protection of refugees from Ukraine in the Netherlands.

The event will leave ample room for questions from the audience and networking.

Full program

11.30-12.30 | Lunch, reception (registration open from 11.00 onwards)

12.30-12.35 | Welcome

• Mr. Bahram Sadeghi, moderator

12.35-12.50 | Opening

• Ms. Rhodia Maas, Director-General of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND)
• Mr. Joeri Kapteijns, vice chair Board of Directors of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA)

12.50-13.10 | Presentation EMN research 'Organising flexible housing in the context of international (and temporary) protection'

• Ms. Julia Koopmans, Ms. Nini Pieters, Researchers EMN Netherlands (IND)
• Questions and discussion

13.10-14.10 | Practices and experiences in Europe: case studies of Luxembourg, Norway, the Netherlands

• Norway: Ms. Birgitte Hopstad, Senior Advisor, Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI)
• Luxembourg: Mr. Pietro Lombardini, Project Manager, International Relations Unit, National Reception Office Luxembourg (ONA)
• Netherlands: Mr. Huub Wilbrink, Strategic Advisor Capacity, and Mr. Sjaak Keuvelaar, General Manager Reception & Support/Program Manager Flexibilisation, Dutch Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA)

14.10-14.30 | Break

14.30-15.00 | Interactive session

15.00-16.00 | Expert panel: Flexible housing in the context of the Temporary Protection Directive; experiences, challenges and lessons learned

• Mr. Gerko Visée, Policy Officer, municipality of The Hague, the Netherlands
• Ms. Trudy Andriessen, Policy Officer/Coordinator, ministry of Justice and Security/Directorate-General Ukraine (DG OEK), the Netherlands
• Ms. Maria Shaidrova, Migration researcher, PhD candidate at the University of Tilburg and chair of Opora Foundation, the Netherlands
• Ms. Roelie Bottema, Manager New Aid Development & Implementation, RefugeeHomeNL (Red Cross Netherlands)

16.00 - 16.15 | Closing remarks

• Mr. Hans Lemmens, Coordinator EMN Netherlands

16.15- 17.15 | Drinks