Mayor Hubert Bruls calls it “extremely tragic” that the reception of refugees in the Netherlands requires these kinds of emergency solutions. “Everyone has been able to see in recent days and weeks that the need in Ter Apel is more than great. I consider it our duty to contribute to a solution for this.”
2000
Since Tuesday, no more than 2000 asylum seekers are allowed to stay in the application center in Ter Apel. The large tents in which people were accommodated and slept are being demolished. As a result, a place to sleep for three hundred people has to be found. One hundred of them can therefore go to Nijmegen from next night. It is still unclear whether there is a solution for the other two hundred. State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) said earlier Tuesday that he cannot guarantee that he will find those places.
It has been busy in Ter Apel lately and there were more people than the 2000 for whom there is officially room. The Groningen Security Region called the situation at the registration center worrying at the end of March. Asylum seekers cannot move on to one of the 111 asylum seekers’ centers. They are full, partly because about 13,000 status holders are waiting for a home.
The cabinet has known for some time that a large number of extra reception places will be needed from this Tuesday. The municipality of Westerwolde had previously indicated that the permit for the tents in which people were accommodated would not be extended. Van der Burg understands the attitude of mayor Jaap Velema van Westerwolde. “He says: I have more than accomplished our task, and done extra. Now it is the turn of the rest of the Netherlands.”