A plan by the Netherlands government to use chartered ferries or cruise ships for refugees has hit another hurdle, this time relating to environmental regulations.
The government announced the plan last week, but it was loudly criticized for a range of reasons.
One of the ships, ferry Aurelia (IMO 7602120), was believed to be sailing to the Netherlands to act as a floating accommodations centre from next week.
However, the local council in the municipality of Zaanstad near Amsterdam has withdrawn its permission for the vessel to dock
City officials said the 21,500 gt Aurelia could not be accommodated at their facilities because the 42-year-old Cyprus-registered ferry would produce too much nitrogen, and that under environmental regulations the port would not be able to handle the pollution coming from the ship.
The port at the southern city of Vlissingen has said that it would not be able to accept one of the vessels. Amidst widespread pushback from residents they demanded that the city government reject the ship.
The Dutch government has said that the current situation was an asylum crisis. The country has accepted an estimated 40,000 refugees from Ukraine in addition to other nationalities that have sought refuge in the country. Reports indicated that the refugee centres were overflowing across the country, and that they were unable to provide shelter for some of the new arrivals. One report said people were having to sleep outside at least one centre on the lawn, with no shelter.
Junior minister Eric van der Burg is charged with dealing with refugees, and was quoted last week as saying that the government had come up with the idea of chartering three vessels, which he referred to as cruise ships but which are really no more than ferries, to house a few thousand of the refugees on a temporary basis. When he was quickly asked where the ships might dock, he said that was still under discussion. He also suggested that the ships might be anchored offshore, with shuttle services being used to transport the
residents to shore. Aid groups compared the plan to the old concept of prison ships.
While aid groups described the idea of placing asylum seekers offshore as absurd, residents and local politicians were less than keen of having the asylum seekers on their doorstep in the ports.
The minister said last week that the government had already chartered the vessels and that they were heading to the Netherlands. He said they had acted quickly to ensure the availability of the vessels. The AIS signal for the one vessel that was identified for the program, the Aurelia, showed that it was docked in Marseille, France but was expected to depart for Spain and presumably continue on to the Netherlands.
In April city officials in the Netherlands chartered a Holland America Line cruise ship as one of their first temporary housing locations, along with two river cruise ships from AmaWaterways. The charter for the Holland America Volendam was extended through the summer, but the cruise line reports the vessel will not extend the charter and will return to cruising in late September.
1980-built, Cyprus-flagged, 21,518 gt Aurelia is owned by Marinvest Srl care of Snav SpA of Naples, Italy. It is managed by MSC Shipmanagement of Limassol, Cyprus. It is entered with Steamship Mutual on behalf of Marinvest Srl. As of July 25th it was moored in Marseille.
