Not today, but tomorrow at midnight, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) must have reduced the number of asylum seekers in Ter Apel. According to the COA, this has been agreed with the municipality of Westerwolde, where Ter Apel is located.
Confusion arose about when exactly the COA must comply with the court ruling. The judge ruled last month that the COA had four weeks to reduce the number of asylum seekers in the registration center in Ter Apel to less than 2,000, subject to a penalty of 15,000 euros for each day that this is not possible.
The COA previously assumed that it would have to adhere to the ruling exactly four weeks after the verdict. That would mean that the deadline is today (Tuesday, February 20). The municipality of Westerwolde held the meeting tomorrow (Wednesday, February 21), four weeks after the COA received the letter with the judge’s ruling.
A spokesperson for the court told ANP that “in general, the four-week period starts one day after service.”
It is not yet clear how many people are currently staying in Ter Apel. The COA does not have precise figures for this. Yesterday morning, more than 2,200 asylum seekers were still staying in the registration center.