It was the soap opera of the past week: is the shuttle bus for asylum seekers between the registration center in Ter Apel and Emmen station free or not? Outgoing asylum minister Mona Keijzer visited Ter Apel on Monday and said that asylum seekers simply had to pay for the bus. A day later, it turned out in practice that asylum seekers could travel without a ticket after all.
In addition, a Drenthe sheep farmer developed a new fence against the wolf, the municipality of Westerveld announced that it no longer wants to allow new lily cultivation and Defense announced that the De Haar military training area near Assen will be permanently expanded. This is an overview of the most important news from last week in Drenthe.
“There will be no free bus for asylum seekers.” Minister Keijzer left no room for any misunderstanding about this on Monday. Emmen has been struggling for years with nuisance from so-called safelanders, or asylum seekers from countries that the Netherlands considers safe. Keijzer assured entrepreneurs and residents that she will quickly take measures against this and that she will not allow a free shuttle bus.
That is why the ministry was very surprised when the shuttle bus turned out to be free on Tuesday morning. RTV Drenthe reporter Mirthe Zuhorn saw how asylum seekers boarded without a ticket. The municipality of Westerwolde, which commissioned the shuttle bus, still allowed asylum seekers to travel without a ticket, thus surprising the minister.
Mayor Velema of Westerwolde later emphasized that in his opinion there is no question of a free bus. He wants to offset the costs with the living allowances of asylum seekers, although no agreements had been made about this yet. At the end of the week, Keijzer was right: asylum seekers will have to simply buy a ticket for the shuttle bus again. The minister wrote this in a letter to the House of Representatives on Friday.
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