This weekend and early next week there are sufficient reception places available for asylum seekers who can no longer go to the registration center in Ter Apel. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) has stated this announced on Saturday evening. Sufficient municipalities have responded to the call from outgoing State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum, VVD) to make additional places available. It has not been announced which municipalities are affected.
The municipality of Arnhem already announced on Friday to make additional childcare places available. Two ships on the Rijnkade should provide a total of 195 additional places. “Arnhem takes its responsibility with this. We hope that other municipalities will follow this example. It is our joint task to contribute to the reception of asylum seekers,” said Paul Smeulders, alderman for refugees of the municipality of Arnhem. Also the municipality of Zwolle gave to want to accommodate sixty asylum seekers at short notice.
‘Many additional places will be needed in the near future’
The efforts of municipalities will continue to be necessary in the near future, reports the COA: “We will need many additional places in the near future,” according to the implementing agency. Outgoing State Secretary Eric van der Burg thanks you on X “the municipalities that took action quickly and are still taking action.”
Van der Burg made the call for extra places on Friday following a recent agreement that the number of asylum seekers in the registration center in Ter Apel may no longer exceed the maximum of two thousand. 450 reception places were needed for Saturday, 250 of which were for unaccompanied minor asylum seekers (AMAs). And from Monday another 750 places, of which 300 for UMAs.