This weekend too, asylum seekers who report at night in Ter Apel must spend the night in the waiting areas of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) warns about this.
The COA says that there is still a shortage of shelter places and that the pressure on Ter Apel remains high. No change is expected this weekend.
There has been an urgent need for additional shelter places for some time now. COA wants to keep the number of asylum seekers in the registration center below two thousand, but this is “quite a challenge with the influx in recent weeks”, said a spokesperson for the reception agency.
In order to improve asylum reception, the COA, together with the Association of Dutch Municipalities (VNG) and Vluchtelingenwerk Nederland, today urgently appealed to the Senate to declare the so-called dispersal law non-controversial.
The Senate will vote on this on Tuesday after a proposal from the SGP to postpone the law. The dispersal law must ensure a fair distribution of asylum seekers across municipalities.