Once again, asylum seekers have to sleep on chairs and in tents in the application center in Ter Apel, because there is too little capacity due to crowds. This concerns “several hundred people”, a spokesperson for the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) reported.
About fifty people sleep on mats in a sports hall of the application center and a total of two hundred people are taken to locations in Stadskanaal and Veendam, the spokesperson reports.
In Ter Apel you can see that there are about fifty tents, in a parking lot within the gates of the registration center. The tents are neatly arranged next to each other. There are about four people in each tent. Three buses departed from the site just after 10 p.m. on Thursday evening, taking people to Veendam and Stadskanaal. Another bus was still waiting around that time. You can also see that a large group of people with bags is waiting.
Earlier it was announced that the Red Cross sounded the alarm because of the “inhuman and untenable” situation at the application center.
The organization placed tents this week to give asylum seekers a place to sleep. But they will be cleaned up in the coming days.
According to the Red Cross, the asylum seekers were not offered any food and drink from Wednesday 10 pm to Thursday 1 pm. “Runs have broken out on the site and the tents have been stolen. The Red Cross itself arranged food and water for this group at 1 p.m. on Thursday. “This is not our responsibility, but the Red Cross does not want that. people are without food and water for so long,” the aid organization said.
The COA says in a response that food and drink have indeed not gone well. “It is not easy to talk about. How that went is being investigated.” “It went terribly wrong, with planning and arrangements that did not go well. There is no solution yet.”
State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) acknowledged on Thursday evening that the reception of asylum seekers in tents in Ter Apel should not actually be allowed. “This is not the asylum reception as we want to shape it in the Netherlands,” he said. This is endorsed by the COA.