The municipality of Coevorden is abandoning the house of fourteen minor refugees in five terraced houses in the Tuindorp district in Coevorden. In the last few days there were protests and riots in the neighborhood because of the announced arrival of the fourteen refugees.
According to the municipality, all refugees are girls between the ages of 15 and 18, but local residents do not believe that and say that there are also ‘traumatized boys’. Due to the unrest there was an emergency regulation last night.
Mayor Renze Bergsma gave a press conference about the situation this afternoon. “I do this with very mixed feelings,” said Bergsma about the turn. “But the most important argument is that we cannot guarantee the safety of these girls at the moment. Despite intensive conversations with residents and parties involved, it was not possible to organize sufficient confidence and support in the neighborhood.”
This week dozens of people set fire to cars and supporters and threw windows. Despite the emergency regulation, it was also restless last night and the ME was used to restore the peace in the neighborhood. Nobody has been arrested.
“I find it unacceptable that it is necessary to have a lot of commitment from the police and the fire brigade for days to maintain order in the neighborhood,” Bergsma looks back. “I very much reject that people, also from outside Coevorden, use arson and intimidation to make a point against the arrival of these girls.”
The residents fear their safety and find it unfair that asylum seekers get homes. “There are families here where grandfathers and grandmothers sit with their children and grandchildren in a house. Some have been waiting for a home for years,” one of the residents said earlier this week.
Mayor Bergsma said earlier this week to understand the concerns of the residents, “but these girls deserve a safe and pleasant place to live”. He also spoke with a number of residents.
View the explanation of Mayor Bergsma at a press conference: