The asylum center in Ter Apel will have a separate location for ‘underprivileged’ asylum seekers. There they go through an accelerated procedure for which they have to stay indoors as much as possible. This anti-nuisance remedy was devised a year ago, but no municipality wanted it. So Ter Apel does it anyway.
It’s impossible to keep up. The nuisance caused by shoplifting, vandalism and burglaries in and around Ter Apel continues. For years. Tensions have risen again in recent months and weeks. An addition, says mayor Jaap Velema. “Perpetrators who are getting bolder, predictions of a high influx, a prime minister who says that things can go wrong again in Ter Apel. People are getting desperate.”
Something has to happen. That is why the municipality of Westerwolde, together with Secretary of State for asylum Eric van der Burg, has now decided to test a separate location in Ter Apel for asylum seekers who have little chance of being admitted to the Netherlands (for example because they come from a safe country). The majority of the nuisance around Ter Apel is caused by asylum seekers from this group.
Other municipalities are too hesitant
The plan for such a ‘process availability location’ (PBL) was launched a year ago by State Secretary Eric van der Burg: let this group go through an accelerated procedure and make sure that they are available for the procedure, to prevent them from delaying the asylum application, for example by not showing up for questioning. There is also stricter supervision, soberly furnished rooms, frequent checks and asylum seekers do not receive a living allowance but resources in kind.
Since then, Van der Burg says that he has been ‘talking’ about the establishment of such a location, at least with the municipality of Almere, but it has never gotten off the ground because municipalities are hesitant to cooperate. A ‘pilot PBL’ is now being set up in Ter Apel.
Call from entrepreneurs to do something like this
Westerwolde has always indicated that such a location could not come to Ter Apel. In 2020 and 2021, a trial was run in Ter Apel and Budel with austere reception for safelanders, after which it was decided that it would be the turn of other municipalities.
“In recent months, the call has come from entrepreneurs to look at such a strict form of shelter in Ter Apel. The troublemakers are already here, so try to keep them inside as much as possible,” says mayor Jaap Velema of Westerwolde. “I got the green light for that from the party chairpersons.” Velema discussed it with State Secretary Van der Burg at the end of April when he was in The Hague with Mayor Eric van Oosterhout of Emmen because of the increased nuisance around Ter Apel.
Ter Apel will do it himself, but not forever
Velema agrees that Ter Apel now has to do it itself because other municipalities have not come across the bridge for a year. “This was born out of necessity. We must offer entrepreneurs and residents in Ter Apel perspective.”
Because Ter Apel still wants other municipalities to eventually start a permanent PBL, the one in Ter Apel is a temporary pilot.
Seine Lok, member of the Westerwolde municipal council on behalf of the CDA, is pleased with the pilot. “If this way the nuisance in the village is reduced, that is of course very good. But indeed, eventually other municipalities will have to get a PBL, the pain must be shared.”
Klaas Buigel, VVD party chairman in the council, agrees. “But I am also happy with this measure. I now hope that this PBL will be completed as soon as possible and that it will also comply with all legal rules. Incidentally, I would prefer that underprivileged asylum seekers no longer come to the Netherlands at all.”
The city council has long insisted on the need to do something about the nuisance in Ter Apel. Just this weekend, the councilors stated in a joint statement that it should be arranged as soon as possible that underprivileged asylum seekers are limited in their options to visit the shopping center of Ter Apel.
Strict reception location PBL
Chain marine Henk Wolthof, appointed since 2019 to combat nuisance from asylum seekers, has developed the idea for such a strict reception location with his colleagues. In June last year, he hopefully announced the process availability location (PBL) as a possible end to the nuisance in Ter Apel. But coming up with a plan is one thing, you also have to get municipalities involved to implement it.
“If we can show in Ter Apel that it works, I expect that other municipalities will come along,” says Wolthof, former manager of the COA. He is happy that the idea will finally be implemented and expects a lot from it. “In recent years we have used all kinds of means to combat nuisance. Sometimes that led to a temporary result, then the troublemakers leave. But there are also new groups coming all the time.”
The idea of the PBL goes beyond simple reception alone. The underprivileged asylum seekers not only receive minimal facilities (such as no living allowance) but must also be permanently available for their procedure. “We make sure they have a program during the day and in the evening,” says Wolthof. “During that time they have to stay on location. Before and after that there will probably be times when they can go outside, but only very limited.”
In this way, the asylum seekers are not literally locked up, but if they leave the location they forfeit their right to reception. “We know that the nuisance-causing group generally does not come here for asylum, but to abuse the reception facilities. If you make the shelter so unattractive and keep the procedure short, we expect them to leave quickly. Experience with the sober shelter pilot shows that they usually move on to another country and do not continue to roam the streets. The ultimate goal is to discourage malicious parties from coming to the Netherlands at all.”