Dozens of demonstrators camp at azc in Ter Apel

A few dozen camping demonstrators came to Ter Apel on Wednesday evening. Around eight o’clock they hammered pegs into the ground, inflated air mattresses and stood there with various banners. ‘You get used to everything, except a tent’, was one of the slogans.

The camping campaign was organized by PerspectieF, the youth branch of the ChristenUnie, and the MiGreat foundation. That foundation showed itself more often in Ter Apel last year, to support asylum seekers sleeping outside. For PerspectieF it was the first demonstration.

It is a protest against the “inhumane conditions” when refugees had to sleep outside at the application center last year. At the time, the refugees were given tents by activist groups, but they were confiscated by authorities.

“I think it’s the first time that we protest as ChristenUnie youth,” says board member Bart Bolhuis of PerspectieF. RTV North. The demonstration is in front of the IND office, just to the right of the lawn that regularly made national news last year. The municipality has designated this place because it is completely municipal land.

The protest was peaceful. However, some tents had to be moved by order of the police. The tents were not in the right place.

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