At the end of Tuesday evening, dozens of asylum seekers stood at the gates of the application center. “There was no room at the reception location. There was also no possibility to accommodate them elsewhere, because we could no longer arrange transport. We have distributed blankets and food and drinks to still offer them some decent shelter. We couldn’t do more at that time,” the spokeswoman said.
That would mean that the asylum seekers would have had to spend the night in the open air. “Yes, that’s right,” said the COA. “A number of people were already under a blanket near the fences. I don’t think this has ever happened before. This is an impressive low.”
The text continues below the tweet…
Mayor Jaap Velema van Westerwolde, which Ter Apel falls under, is late RTV North know that the municipality had also tried everything. ,,I spent the whole evening in Ter Apel. There was eventually room in Budel, but transport was no longer possible,” he says to the regional channel. “The situation remains worrisome and calls for scaling up.”
In the end, in the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, it was decided to accommodate the group in waiting rooms in the registration center. “There are no beds there. But at least they now have a roof over their heads,” said the COA spokeswoman. The COA hopes to find a shelter for the group elsewhere in the country on Wednesday. “But the issue remains. Ter Apel is the bottleneck and it will remain an exciting time for the time being.”
The problems at Ter Apel have been going on for quite some time. The central reception location can accommodate up to 2000 refugees, but the COA has to accommodate a few dozen more people almost every day.