Cry for help after cry for help, but in Ter Apel (almost) nothing changes

At the beginning of March, the refugee flow from Ukraine starts. This group does not have to apply for asylum, and many municipalities make reception space available on their own initiative. As a result, the reception is progressing smoothly. But the COA is sounding the alarm: the organization emphasizes that more places for others must also be created urgently.

“We now notice that it is very difficult to place the regular group somewhere, because almost everything is reserved for Ukrainians,” says COA chairman Milo Schoenmaker. “It is now overflowing in Ter Apel.”

Within a week and a half, 1500 new places must be found for asylum seekers from countries such as Syria and Afghanistan. As of April 1, the emergency shelters in Almelo and Wassenaar will disappear, where 1180 people will be housed.

People who want to apply for asylum in the Netherlands must report to the application center in Ter Apel. After that, they are assigned a regular reception place in the rest of the country. However, there is an acute shortage of regular shelter places, which means that the night shelter in Ter Apel, which is actually intended to stay one night, is overcrowded.

The State Secretary for Asylum Affairs, Eric van der Burg, also sees that the need is great. “Finding places is necessary, otherwise people will sleep on the street.” According to Security Council chairman Hubert Bruls, “everything must be pulled out” to open additional locations and may have to use coercion. However, under current legislation, there is no possibility of coercion.

Mayor Schuiling of Groningen is ashamed of the living conditions in the application center. “Children play among the waste. There are infinitely better sanitary facilities on a festival site,” he says after a visit. “There is a pungent sewage smell in the shelter tents, and urinals are full of urine and brown sludge. There is a risk of infections and infectious diseases, there is zero privacy and it is a fire hazard.”

According to him, municipalities are tumbling over each other to help when it comes to the reception of refugees from Ukraine, but status holders (asylum seekers with a residence permit) are left behind. “It’s a different category of people or something, I don’t know. We’re breaking the law on all sides. It’s shameful.”

For days the COA searches for reception locations for 300 asylum seekers. For a long time no one listens. Ultimately, Amsterdam, Oss and Nijmegen will make space available. Alkmaar follows a day later. The emergency measure prevents these asylum seekers from ending up on the street.

COA wants “in the very short term” a number of larger reception locations that can be used for a longer period of time. At the moment there is not enough perspective to get out of the acute capacity shortage, the organization says.

There is no room for dozens of asylum seekers. For a long time it seems that they have to spend the night in front of the gates of Ter Apel on a lawn. Blankets and food and drink are distributed to them outside. They are brought in at the last minute. They are housed in waiting areas of the application center. There are no beds, “but at least they now have a roof over their heads,” a spokesperson said. “I don’t think this has ever happened before. This is an impressive low.”

State Secretary Van der Burg of Asiel again calls on municipalities to help with a better distribution of asylum seekers. There is also dismay in the House of Representatives. If a solution is not found quickly, the situation will become untenable, according to the COA.

In the evening the Red Cross sets up tents at the overcrowded registration center. The aid organization takes into account that there is no place for 200 people. In the end, the tents turned out not to be necessary, but “it was just a matter of time.” The Groningen Safety Region provides shelter for about a hundred people in an emergency shelter location in Heerenveen.

Despite all the cries for help and appeals, there are still no structural solutions. Municipalities must receive asylum seekers, but cannot be forced to do so. In the short term, nothing will change in Ter Apel. State Secretary Van der Burg expects the shortage of places to continue for almost a week.

The Red Cross hopes that more municipalities will make a place available where new asylum seekers can register. Experts argue in favor of making vacant buildings available as an emergency solution that are not actually intended for habitation. In the longer term, the government could provide more permanent reception for asylum seekers, experts say.

The shortage of places is partly due to the fact that asylum seekers who have received a residence permit find it difficult to move on to a normal home. In this video NOS explains exactly where the problem is: