The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) approached the municipality of Apeldoorn last Wednesday whether it could urgently offer a place for a number of asylum seekers for four nights. Due to the ‘unsustainable situation in Ter Apel’, the municipality responded to the call. Sports halls Mheenpark and Zuiderpark were already equipped for the arrival of Ukrainian refugees earlier this summer, but now offer a temporary home to asylum seekers.
The COA application center in Ter Apel has been overcrowded for months, because the flow of people further down the asylum chain has come to a standstill. Status holders find it difficult to find a home, so they stay in asylum seekers’ centers for a long time. As a result of the crowds in Ter Apel, hundreds of asylum seekers regularly sleep outside the application centre. A new low was reached on Tuesday and Wednesday night with about 700 sleepers outside.
According to , residents of the two sports halls were The Stentor Thursday afternoon a letter in the mailbox about the arrival of the asylum seekers. When the first refugees arrived in Sporthal Zuiderpark, halfway through the evening, there was some ‘commotion’, but it was nipped in the bud by the police and security guards. By midnight, the police sent the last of the refugees inside.
After their stay in Apeldoorn, the refugees are transferred to a new crisis emergency shelter in Doetinchem. The municipality there has been working for some time to prepare the location next to the police station for the reception of about 225 asylum seekers. They must be able to stay in Doetinchem for at least three months.