Make the Emmen station area a safety risk area, expand the number of boas and take a closer look at femicide. Safety was the issue during the Emmer budget meeting. In any case, with some positive news: the money to pay for security in Nieuw-Weerdinge has been received. With that money, the municipality can extend the measures against nuisance caused by safelanders. In addition, asylum minister Mona Keijzer is coming to the region in December.
This means that Minister Keijzer is finally responding to a request that the municipality has been pushing for for months. Mayor Eric van Oosterhout expressed strong criticism of the ministry in October, because according to him, the cry for help from Emmen was not being heeded at all. “We had been raising the alarm in The Hague for months, but the silence remained deafening,” Van Oosterhout said earlier this year. Residents of Nieuw-Weerdinge also experience nuisance from safelanders staying at the asylum center in Ter Apel.
Last Friday the redeeming news finally arrived: the government made approximately five hundred thousand euros available. The municipality itself adds another two to two and a half tons. The money is mainly used for additional private security during the night hours around the asylum seeker center in Nieuw-Weerdinge.
According to Van Oosterhout, the commitment came at the nick of time. “Two days before the budget discussion there was finally white smoke. Otherwise we would have had to advance it ourselves to prevent a hole in security.”
Minister Keijzer has promised to visit Ter Apel on December 15. Van Oosterhout hopes that she will also visit Nieuw-Weerdinge. “It would be nice if she talked to residents there. That would be appropriate.”
However, he believes that this visit comes too late to have any influence on the current contribution. The money had to be arranged now, not just after Christmas, the mayor said.
The mayor emphasizes that he is happy with the money, but it does not solve the problems. It remains a stopgap measure, he says. “We especially need better asylum legislation and distribution of safelanders across several municipalities. Now we are in Ter Apel with a group of 150 to 200 nuisance perpetrators.” If that group becomes smaller and better distributed, it will make a huge difference. “Because we are now actually paying for a fire truck, while the pyromaniac just keeps walking around.”