The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) expects to be able to accommodate all asylum seekers arriving at the application center in Ter Apel on Wednesday night. There is probably enough space available, including in reception locations in Stadskanaal and Groningen, according to a spokesperson.
Presumably, just like the previous nights, 130 people will have to sleep on a chair in waiting rooms of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). There is also room for two hundred people in the fifty tents set up by the Red Cross. There are also places in a sports hall and hotels. It is not yet known how many people will sleep in which place. “People can also come in at night,” said the spokesman.
The application center has been struggling with major capacity problems for some time now. On Tuesday night, at least eighty asylum seekers slept in the tents of the Red Cross, which the aid organization placed on the site as an emergency solution.
To support Ter Apel, four security regions take turns to provide emergency emergency shelter for six hundred asylum seekers for two weeks. In the past two weeks, those were Groningen, Friesland, Zeeland and Amsterdam-Amstelland. On Wednesday, Central and West Brabant (Loon op Zand), Gelderland-South (Culemborg), Gelderland-Midden (De Steeg) and Gooi en Vechtstreek/Flevoland (Almere, Hilversum, Laren) took over.
The municipalities of Midden-Drenthe and De Wolden announced today that they would make sports halls available for emergency shelter. The Börkerkoel in Westerbork can temporarily house a hundred people, and an empty gym in Ruinen can accommodate fifty asylum seekers. This should give the application center in Ter Apel some extra air.
The places are not immediately available. The shelter in Westerbork and Ruinen will open on June 29, and will then be open for two weeks.