Employees of the special reception center for asylum seekers who cause a lot of nuisance use violence when it is not allowed at all. The facilities at the so-called enforcement and supervision location (HTL) in Hoogeveen are also not good enough. That is the conclusion of the Justice and Security Inspectorate. This summer, in response to signals that things were going wrong, he made unannounced visits and studied camera images.
The Inspectorate has difficulty with the intervention of the so-called housing counselors who work there. They are not authorized to use force or coercion, but sometimes appear to do so. Other employees, including boas, who have more authority, also work at the location.
The Inspectorate reports to have heard numerous examples “of incidents in which asylum seekers received a blow or kick. Even in cases where the asylum seeker was not aggressive or even ran away. Some housing counselors say that they find such use of violence and coercion normal, while that is only normal in cases of self-defense, and therefore as a last resort, is allowed. It is unclear how far the boas can go in applying coercion, that is left to the inspectorate to find out,” the inspectorate wrote.
The people who are in Hoogeveen are temporarily no longer allowed to live in a normal asylum seekers center. “With this we show that we do not tolerate their behavior and we ensure safety and quality of life in the asylum seekers’ centers”, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) writes about this on its website. There is room for fifty people who, for example, commit vandalism or have used violence.
It is also the intention that people are guided so that they can return to the normal reception chain in the future. That also does not work well enough, according to the Inspectorate. The day program is described as “flawed”. The residents are also too dependent on the employees for care and support of lawyers, according to the Inspectorate.