The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) is not sure whether there will be enough reception places to accommodate asylum seekers at the end of the week. Yesterday, the COA reported that the acute emergency has been resolved.
Yet the need remains high because more (underage) asylum seekers are reporting than expected. The waiting room in Assen, which is supposed to relieve the pressure on the registration center in Ter Apel, is almost full.
Things are getting stuck at various points in the asylum chain, meaning asylum seekers cannot be sent to the right place. The influx of new people remains higher than expected, says a COA spokesperson. There are enough shelter places in these first days of the week, after an emergency call from State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) last Friday. That immediately resulted in more places.
The COA cannot say exactly how many places municipalities have made available since Friday. “We have to check all registrations to see whether care is really possible. And we also need to have staff for this, because the COA is responsible for care at all types of locations. It remains extremely tight.”
King’s Commissioner Jetta Klijnsma also called on Dutch municipalities to do extra hard to ensure sufficient shelter places. “There are still far too many municipalities that do nothing at all. Those municipalities think: it will take my time. Ter Apel will solve it,” she said on Friday to RTV Drenthe.
Asylum seekers who have just arrived in the Netherlands cannot immediately start the procedure. They first have to wait a few days in so-called waiting rooms in front of the Ter Apel registration center. The municipality of Assen decided last week that the Expo Hall, which serves as a waiting room and must support Ter Apel, will remain open for three months longer.
But in Assen they also experience the consequences of the lack of flow. “The hall in Assen is almost full,” says a COA spokesperson. However, it is also flowing again at this location, because Amsterdam and Oudewater have also opened a so-called front portal location since last week.