The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) stops the nocturnal emergency shelter as a back -for -go for Ter Apel. That emergency shelter is now still located in Nieuwolda in Groningen and would move to the Frisian Wolvega in mid -May.
That move will no longer happen. According to the COA, it is no longer necessary for the time being and will stop in three weeks. It was recently announced that even if they are not used, this facility already costs seven thousand euros per night.
The nocturnal emergency shelter is intended as an overflow in the event of a lot of crowds in the registration center. Asylum seekers spent the night there to prevent them from having to sleep in waiting rooms or on the grass before the complex. In the evening they were taken to that location by buses to be brought back to Ter Apel the next morning.
In the summer of 2023, the first night care in Tenten was set up in Stadskanaal. Also in Drenthe these emergency locations are set up in various places, for example in Beilen, 2nd Exloërmond and Peize. At most location, around 200 asylum seekers could be housed at night and there have been times when the beds were completely occupied.
At the end of October last year, the court imposed a penalty of 50,000 euros for each day that more than two thousand asylum seekers would be placed in Ter Apel. That must be paid to the municipality of Westerwolde. That decision was recently confirmed on appeal.
From the start of the verdict six months ago, the Night Nood Shelter was no longer used. “It was therefore decided not to continue with this expensive form of care,” the COA says in a statement.
Yet the threat that the maximum number of two thousand in Ter Apel is not exceeded again. ‘We are very grateful to the municipalities that have offered emergency night shelter in the last year and a half. We remain interested in a shelter in the region where people can also stay during the day. And we continue to look for sufficient regular reception places, “Milo Schoenmaker, chairman of the board, announces.