The asylum seekers who stay in the emergency shelter in the Expo Hall in Assen are all at a new location for Saturday. The hall must be empty because of the activities around the TT in the coming period.
That agreement has made the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) with the municipality of Assen. “We do it as a precaution, to prevent everything from being mixed up and that there would be a nuisance,” says location manager Klaas van der Veen. “Nuisance from the visitors to the TT to the residents or vice versa.”
There were still 252 asylum seekers in the hall. A different place has now been found for 222 residents. “They go to a regular COA location, other reception locations and two large locations in Amsterdam,” Van der Veen explains.
For the remaining thirty asylum seekers, shelter is still being sought. “We are confident that it will still work, so that we will really have an empty hall on Saturday.” Van der Veen hopes to know soon where that group, which can also be divided between different locations, must go. The asylum seekers are taken to their new accommodation by buses.
The intention is that no asylum seekers will return to the Expo hall in the following period. “We intend to keep the hall empty in the period up to the Truckstar Festival. Or to use the moment we really need it.” The Truckstar Festival will take place on the TT Circuit on July 26 and 27.
It was not easy for the COA to empty the Expo hall. Van der Veen: “If COA, we are really very full nationally. We need every place that we have free. Then it is very difficult to empty such a hall. But then I am extra happy that we succeeded and we can follow the appointment with the municipality of Assen.”
Then the question remains whether asylum seekers will return to the Expo Hal after the Truckstar Festival. “We try to keep it empty at least. But we don’t know for sure if we still have to use it.” It was explicitly agreed with the municipality of Assen that the Expo Hall will stop at the end of this year as an emergency shelter for asylum seekers.