The events hall at Breepark in Breda will temporarily become an emergency shelter for asylum seekers. A group of up to 500 people can be accommodated for six weeks if other COA reception locations are full. The first asylum seekers can go there next week.
The temporary emergency shelter is necessary because other temporary locations are closing. As a result, there may be a shortage of sleeping places in, among other things, the registration center in Ter Apel. The shelter in Breda must prevent people from having to sleep on the street.
“We don’t want to leave people in need out in the cold and sleep outside. Everyone can still remember the harrowing images of an overcrowded reception center in Ter Apel. We don’t want that again,” said alderman for housing and integration, Arjen van Drunen.
All municipalities in the Netherlands have been instructed to offer shelters for refugees. The municipality of Breda has been tasked with arranging long-term accommodation for 675 asylum seekers. The Dome already accommodates 100 unaccompanied minor refugees. 577 Ukrainians are also taken care of.
Whether the emergency shelter will actually be used and for how many people depends on the need.