There will be no bed for at least a hundred asylum seekers in the application center in Ter Apel next night. They have to spend the night on chairs in the recreation room and the waiting area of the application centre, reports a spokesperson for the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA).
There is room for two thousand people in Ter Apel. The past nights it was busy in the registration center and about fifty people always slept on chairs.
Ter Apel has been struggling with large crowds for some time because of a shortage of reception places in asylum seekers’ centers. As a result, COA often has to find extra places to sleep at the last minute and asylum seekers sometimes sleep on chairs.
Because of the shortage, the 25 security regions in the Netherlands have agreed that four regions will arrange emergency shelter for 150 people for two weeks. As a result, there should be sufficient reception capacity for weeks. The regions are now preparing to receive more people through emergency shelters in the near future. This happens in, for example, sports halls or tents.