Society is going to pay the price for how refugee children are now being treated, says Hans Faber on the phone. He is chief inspector of the Justice and Security Inspectorate, which on Monday, together with the Health and Youth Care Inspectorate, wrote a “fire letter” to State Secretary Eric van den Burg (Asylum and Migration, VVD). Subject: children in asylum reception. Conclusion: action must be taken.
Inspectors saw abuses especially around the application center in Ter Apel – where every asylum seeker must report first – and in the emergency reception locations – set up because regular asylum seekers centers are overcrowded. Children and young people receive poor health care, no education and hardly any guidance. Faber: “The Convention on the Rights of the Child is not guaranteed.”
In the letter, the inspectorates “question” whether the legal distinction made between Ukrainian refugees and asylum seekers from other countries is “objectively justifiable”. Can you answer that question yourself?
“The difference between those groups has become possible because of how the system is set up by the government.”
Emergency law applied to Ukrainian refugees, but not to people from all other countries, the regular asylum seekers. Ukrainian refugees are now received separately, by municipalities. While regular asylum seekers’ centers are overcrowded, there are still empty beds for Ukrainians.
Faber: “But the answer to that question is… Well, what we would like to see: that the energy, creativity, urgency, perseverance that has been shown for Ukrainians, will also be shown for the other asylum children.”
So the answer is: no.
“The traffic light has been orange for quite some time.”
The longer this situation lasts, the more harmful to the children
What did you find in refugee centers?
“What we found very shocking was how long families have to wait before they can identify and register at all at the application center in Ter Apel. The central reception location is full, so people have to sleep in the night shelter. It closes at six in the morning. People then have to click, back to the application center. But: it’s busy there too. Some families sleep in night shelters for ten days until they can finally register. In the meantime, it is not good to keep track of who is staying where. The overview is missing.”
He continues: “Once at the central reception location in Ter Apel, where asylum seekers wait after registering to move on to asylum seekers’ centers throughout the Netherlands, the situation is not much better. During one visit, the inspectorates counted three times as many unaccompanied minor asylum seekers than intended. They argue, unsafe situations arise because the guidance does not have time to keep an eye on everyone. Rooms are getting dirty, meals can no longer be eaten together because the dining room is too small, and intakes are done in groups due to the crowds.
“In addition, families and unaccompanied minor asylum seekers sometimes stay in the central reception location for months – while the agreement is that they can only stay there for a few days. All that time there is no education, little care, hardly any guidance.”
You are also concerned about emergency shelters. There are no unaccompanied minor asylum seekers there, but there are families.
“Such places are not suitable for long stays, but some families sleep there for months. In Leeuwarden, families are housed in a large shed without windows, in units without ceilings. One unit has room for four. If a family consists of three people, an unknown person is added. Or worse: sometimes one family member has to be in another unit.”
Problems in asylum reception have been known for months, why is this letter now?
“That is also stated in the letter, we know that the item has already been addressed. We understood that a lot had to be arranged quickly for Ukrainians, that has been going on for a while now. The situation for other asylum seekers has not improved in recent months. In fact, it only got worse. It did not stop at one night’s sleep in the grass at the registration center in Ter Apel. In addition, the position of children was underexposed. All boundaries have been crossed.”
On Friday, the cabinet announced a national crisis team to improve reception. Does that help?
“As an inspectorate, we will monitor whether it actually leads to equal treatment for all refugees.”
Is that possible in this asylum system?
„By increasing asylum capacity [zoals de regering aankondigde] It has not yet been resolved that thousands of people with a residence status, people who are allowed to stay in the Netherlands, are detained in asylum seekers’ centers. They should have been in a residential area, for example in Winterswijk. Despite all the agreements between the state and the local government, despite the obligations that municipalities have to accommodate status holders, this is not happening. We have come up with the idea that children should integrate as quickly as possible, that they should be allowed to build a life. That’s not possible now. The longer this situation lasts, the more harmful it can be to their development.”
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 21, 2022