Starting this weekend, the municipality of Amsterdam will receive an extra 250 refugees for whom there is no room in the application center in Ter Apel. From Friday 65 people can be accommodated in sports hall Elzenhagen and 65 in sports hall Zeeburg. This shelter is available for a week. There is also room for 120 people at the Botel at the NDSM wharf, this shelter can be extended until 1 October.
For the sports clubs, schools and other tenants who would use the sports halls in the coming week, it is being examined whether the municipality can offer alternative locations.
Amsterdam offers the new reception places “because it is unacceptable if people would have to sleep outside again”, according to Alderman Rutger Groot Wassink (Social Affairs and Refugees). By this he refers to the crowds at the registration center in Ter Apel, which meant that people had to sleep outside for a while. “This emergency move shows once again how bad the situation is with the organization of reception in the country.”
Already 2100 refugees
Amsterdam is currently already receiving 2100 refugees and status holders. Most of them stay in the A&O Hostel (850 people), the azc Willinklaan (700 people) and the Marine Etablissement Amsterdam (250 people). From the beginning of October, a thousand people will also be accommodated on a cruise ship in the Western Docklands.
Wassink therefore makes an urgent appeal to other municipalities to work on the reception of refugees. “It cannot be the case that a minority of the municipalities solves the problems. This is our joint responsibility. Refugees deserve humane reception, and it is up to the central government and all municipalities to provide it.”