The MSF team in ter Apel treated eighty people today at the application center for asylum seekers in Ter Apel. This is reported by an employee of the organization.
Yesterday, three people were sent to the hospital from the site, an MSF employee said after reporting from nu.nl. Earlier, the aid organization reported that two people had to go to hospital, one of whom had an acute heart attack.
The other was a diabetic who hadn’t been on insulin for weeks. Since Thursday, MSF has been providing medical assistance to asylum seekers waiting in front of the application center in Ter Apel. Hundreds of people have been sleeping on the site in front of the center for days. The Red Cross also provides aid in Ter Apel.
Defense will also help. The Ministry of Defense makes a location available to accommodate asylum seekers who would otherwise have to sleep outside the gates of the application center in Ter Apel because there is no room. From there, those involved are taken to the application center where they can register as an asylum seeker. Defense will also help with transport back and forth, State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) announced.
Van der Burg could not yet say exactly where the location is. Defense also helps with the construction of the location and with the supply of personnel. It concerns a location on a military site, explains a spokesperson. The intention is that this location will be in use “from next week”, according to a letter from Van der Burg to the House of Representatives.
According to Prime Minister Mark Rutte, the problems in Ter Apel will certainly continue throughout the weekend. The government wants to relieve the pressure on the asylum chain by adjusting the visa provision for family members and by no longer accepting people in the context of the Turkey deal. State Secretary Van der Burg writes this in a letter to the House of Representatives. The measures are temporary, he emphasizes.
Relatives are family members of people who are already in the Netherlands. They will not be allowed to come to the Netherlands until a home is available for the family. The intention is that the application will be put in motion for the time being and that the application will also be assessed. The visa is only actually issued if there is a house.
Not only will fewer people come to the Netherlands for the time being, these people no longer have to wait for their application in Ter Apel, says Van der Burg.
The cabinet also wants to temporarily stop accepting people who are allowed to come to Europe under the Turkey deal. According to Van der Burg, the Netherlands has resettled a “substantial number of people” for years, relatively even more than all other European countries. It’s about a thousand people a year. But now that “we have people sleeping in the grass in Ter Apel, or in sports halls” that is no longer possible. Van der Burg calls it “in the current situation not responsible” to let people come over.