The security regions agreed on Monday during the Security Council in Utrecht to realize 2,000 extra places for asylum seekers in the short term. This will relieve the burden on the application center in Ter Apel, among other things.
Utrecht, Amsterdam, Haarlemmermeer and a number of municipalities have promised to receive people this week so that refugees no longer have to sleep in a tent in Ter Apel.
The tent will be demolished on Thursday. On Monday evening, the first people arrived in Utrecht from Ter Apel. In the coming weeks they will sleep in an emergency shelter in the former Holland Casino building. That location has been prepared in haste.
compulsion
The Security Council, the meeting of the chairmen of the 25 security regions, also wants The Hague to force municipalities to receive people if they do not want to. “We have indicated to the State Secretary that this is the umpteenth time that people in Ter Apel have to stay under inhumane conditions. We want the government to use coercion, because it can no longer be done like this. More places are really needed,” says the chairman. Hubert Bruls after the meeting. According to the mayor of Nijmegen, the reception of asylum seekers is a national policy and The Hague must take its responsibility. “The need is high.”
State Secretary Eric van der Burg calls it “extremely unfortunate” that the mayors in the deliberations unanimously believe that he should use coercion. He doesn’t think it’s necessary if everyone puts their shoulders to the wheel.
acute problem
Joeri Kapteijns of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers indicates that the acute problem has been “solved for now” because of the 2000 places. According to him, it is not just about Ter Apel. Also in the shelter for Ukrainians in Harskamp are people who have applied for asylum but who do not belong there because they come from completely different countries. They can move on to those extra places.