Asylum seekers in crisis shelters protest, even though hardly anyone notices

“It feels like a desert here,” says Yasser AlMousa from Syria. He looks out over the bare fields behind the Baanstee-Noord industrial estate outside Purmerend. On a meadow between a soil research company, a solar farm and a catering butcher, the security region has erected a large white tent in which 450 refugees are staying. A car with two curious seniors slowly drives past the entrance gate, then pulls away.

Some residents have been in this ‘crisis emergency reception location’ for nine or ten months, awaiting the start of their procedure at the IND immigration service. They are exhausted. AlMousa: “We want to bring our families here, but we are completely stuck here.”

Out of frustration that nothing is happening, a few residents of the tent in Purmerend have recently started organizing small protests. Last week a group went to the IND office in Amsterdam, this week they are outside the fence with protest signs every day. Not that many people see it – hardly anyone comes to this remote corner. People are also protesting against the poor living conditions and hopeless waiting in other crisis shelters and emergency shelters, such as Zuidbroek.

The intention was that asylum seekers would live in a ‘crisis emergency reception location’ for a maximum of one week. They were hurriedly set up last year by municipalities and security regions, after the Ter Apel application center of the COA overflowed, the emergency reception locations of the COA became full and people had to sleep outside in the grass. There are now about a hundred crisis emergency reception locations in the Netherlands, where 7,000 people are staying, in addition to 15,000 people in emergency shelters and 30,000 in regular asylum seekers’ centers. Some of these crisis emergency shelters have been open for three quarters of a year, while the facilities are too meager for the semi-permanent status.

The lack of perspective is “critical” at all emergency reception locations, the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate wrote earlier. Reported last week NRC about substandard medical care.

Life in the tent in Purmerend is tough. No, it is not cold, there is food, there is some education for the children and there are bicycles that residents can borrow to cycle to the city center. But in the meantime, the giant tent feels like a prison, they say.

When the wind blows, the tent cloth flaps loudly and no one can sleep well at night. A few weeks ago, two beams fell from the roof, several residents say. The rattling is in addition to the many nocturnal noises that are already there – all men, women and children sleep between bulkheads without a ceiling. Every snore, every cry, every cry can be heard.

And there is nothing, nothing to do, says AlMousa, except to wait as you become more tired and unhappy every day. “We can’t work, we can’t go anywhere, because we have no money. Eat, drink, sleep, nothing else.”