As a council member of Westerwolde, Wim Eilert has been fighting for years against the ‘asylum nuisance’ in Ter Apel. As a trade unionist, he has recently started doing the same in North Brabant.
In the municipality of Cranendonck to be precise. There, in Budel, is the azc that can accommodate 1500 people and that is the largest reception center in the country after that of Ter Apel.
Driving train crew
“Residents of that azc in Budel have been causing nuisance for some time at the station in nearby Maarheze and in the train that runs from there, on the Eindhoven-Weert line,” says Eilert. ,,As VVMC, the union for train crews of which I am a driver, we try to do something about it. This week we had a meeting with mayor Roland van Kessel van Cranendonck, in the town hall.”
Eilert lives in Ter Apelkanaal and, as a local PvdA politician, has been involved in the asylum problem in Ter Apel for a very long time. First as a council member of Vlagtwedde, now as PvdA party leader in the Westerwolde municipal council.
Shoplifting, burglaries and nuisance in the asylum center itself cause a lot of unrest in Ter Apel. It has occupied me and my fellow councilors and the mayor and aldermen for a long time,” says Eilert. “We have spent countless hours on it, we are doing our utmost to contain the nuisance, often caused by underprivileged asylum seekers. Hopefully that will work in the near future.”
stricter regime
In the asylum center of Ter Apel, a Process Availability Location (PBL) has been put into use where underprivileged asylum seekers stay under a stricter regime and go through an accelerated asylum procedure. The chance that they cause a nuisance in the village and the surrounding area is thus much smaller.
,,I have good expectations of the PBL, but I am absolutely not free of worries when it comes to Ter Apel”, says Eilert. ,,And I now have just as much concern about the station in Maarheze. Underprivileged asylum seekers come there from the reception center in Budel and cause nuisance. They harass train workers. But also security guards on the platform, which the NS has placed there, are threatened. They have even received death threats.”
Conductor has been at home for a long time
According to Eilert, it’s all the same on the train. “The troublemakers travel to Eindhoven, for example, but some do not have a ticket and harass the staff. The police is therefore regularly present on the train. One of our members, a conductor, has been at home for a long time. He walked into a supermarket in Maarheeze, where the nuisance is also great, and was suddenly approached by a resident of the asylum center. He had taken a picture of him and showed it to him, which felt very threatening. the man suffers a lot from this. This is just one example. In short, the situation there cannot remain as it is.”
According to the VVMC, this week’s consultations in town hall have already resulted, among other things, in the fact that the police will remain present on the train route and that it will be investigated whether gathering bans and area bans can come into force in the station area.
“I hope that this will improve the safety of staff and passengers,” said Eilert. ,,But heze will keep me busy in the near future, during my working hours. Outside those hours, the situation in Ter Apel continues. I’m fortunate enough to be professional enough not to take all this home with me. But my head is pretty full with the asylum problem.”
Fire letter
Last week, the mayor of Cranendonck wrote an urgent letter to outgoing State Secretary Eric van der Burg. He states that residents of the azc in Budel have been causing nuisance for some time, at the station but also elsewhere. He calls on the Secretary of State to take action. ‘The measure is really full for residents, entrepreneurs and the municipal council of Cranendonck,’ writes mayor Van Kessel.