In the coming days, about three hundred asylum seekers will be transferred from the overcrowded reception center in Ter Apel to new reception centers in other municipalities. State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum, VVD) announced this on Friday evening during a press conference.
It is the outcome of the first consultation of the crisis team that Minister Dilan Yesilgöz (Justice and Security, VVD) set up on Friday to improve the flow of asylum seekers. The minister himself directs this. The team also consists of Van der Burg, Minister Hanke Bruins Slot (Internal Affairs, CDA), Hugo de Jonge (Public Housing, CDA) and representatives from a number of other government bodies, such as the National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV). The chairmen of the 25 security regions are also sitting at the table.
The crisis team will meet again on Monday. Then there must be a plan for the next three months and the long term, Van der Burg said during the press conference on Friday. The medium-term plan focuses on status holders (asylum seekers who already have a residence permit) without a home. The idea is that they will move on from asylum seekers’ centers to other temporary shelters yet to be established. Minister Slot will be responsible for the long-term plan. That will focus on housing status holders.
According to Van der Burg, the fact that a crisis team has now been set up is because the chairman of the Groningen security region has announced the ‘GRIP 4’ safety regulation. “Then you say: there is such an emergency in my region that I ask the Minister of Justice and the other security regions for help,” says Van der Burg. The State Secretary did not want to use the word ‘compulsion’ on Friday, but did say: ‘You have to have a damn good story if you want to say ‘no’ to a colleague and the Minister of Justice in a situation like mayor. ”
According to Van der Burg, last night’s news about the situation in Ter Apel was “more than the drop” that made the camel over. Asylum seekers have been sleeping there for nights in Red Cross tents and on chairs. Last night it turned out that some of them had no food and drink for an evening and morning.
Not only in Ter Apel, but throughout the Netherlands, the reception of asylum seekers is halted due to a higher influx, too few reception places, too few staff and the housing crisis, as a result of which status holders keep reception places occupied. A law is being worked on to oblige municipalities to receive asylum seekers, but it may not come into effect until early next year.
A version of this article also appeared in the newspaper of June 18, 2022