The dire situation in the overcrowded application center Ter Apel, where asylum seekers have to sleep in waiting rooms, is expected to remain so in the coming days. It will probably not be until next Tuesday that greater numbers of sleeping places elsewhere in the country will be available to accommodate asylum seekers.
That said Eric van der Burg (Justice and Security, VVD) and Milo Schoenmaker, chairman of the board of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) during a press conference in The Hague on Wednesday afternoon.
On Tuesday evening, a few dozen asylum seekers looked for a place to sleep in front of the COA fences in the grass, because the application center (2,000 places) is full. The COA has tried to arrange bus drivers to accommodate these people elsewhere, but this was not successful because the drivers in question had reached their maximum driving time, the COA was told, according to a spokesperson.
Van der Burg and Schoenmaker want to prevent people having to sleep outside again. With an influx of about two hundred asylum seekers a day and a lack of beds, the situation remains dire for the time being. Ter Apel has actually been full since August last year, said Schoenmaker.
Municipalities do not want
One explanation for the current emergency at Ter Apel is that municipalities say they have already received refugees from Ukraine and no longer have places for ‘regular’ asylum seekers, Schoenmaker said. Another reason is that the locations offered are relatively small and short-term.
Van der Burg and Schoenmaker made an urgent appeal to municipalities to accommodate more asylum seekers. For example, “ten thousand beds” would be reserved for refugees from Ukraine that can be used temporarily, the state secretary said.
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The government is looking at available places within the Central Government Real Estate Agency. Van der Burg also said that he had asked Groningen mayor Koen Schuiling to arrange emergency accommodation for asylum seekers in, for example, a sports and events hall. If municipalities were to accommodate more status holders with a residence permit, hotel beds would also become available again for asylum seekers, Schoenmaker said.
Since August last year, a total of 17,000 new sleeping places have been found and the COA organization has grown by 500 to 600 employees, the chairman of the board wanted to emphasize.
For the longer term, there are advanced talks about a second application center in the Netherlands, said Van der Burg. “I think there should be a second registration center very soon. And then at least one more.”
coercive measures
Van der Burg wants to discuss new measures in the Council of Ministers next week to be able to enforce sleeping places for asylum seekers in the short term. The State Secretary did not want to give any further details about these measures on Wednesday. Van der Burg also wants to legislate that he can force municipalities to receive asylum seekers.
Unfortunately, such coercion is necessary, said Schoenmaker of COA when asked. “You wish it wasn’t necessary,” said the board chairman. “It is needed. When I look at my responsibility, I see thousands of places in this country that we have already asked several times for ‘can we use it?’ which we get no to.”
In addition to municipalities that do cooperate well with the reception, we see „unfortunately a number freeriders who do not deliver,” said Van der Burg. Schoenmaker: “The municipalities themselves say that it is impossible. We think that the municipalities do have space, but that they do not want to make it available.”