“It must now be clear that things cannot continue like this.” Nieuw-Weerdinge is done with it. Increasingly, nuisance caused by ‘safelanders’ from Ter Apel is moving to the Drenthe border village, one and a half kilometers away. Last Monday, a theft even turned into a real manhunt.
The asylum seekers, coming from the asylum seeker center in Ter Apel, steal things from cars, take bicycles and even defecate and pee in local residents’ gardens, says secretary John Uffels of the Association for Local Interest in Nieuw-Weerdinge.
“It is nothing new anymore, but it is happening more and more often, sometimes twice a week,” he says.
According to Uffels, the fact that asylum seekers often walk through the village has to do with the fact that this is the fastest route to Emmen. “On the way to the city they do something bad in our village.”
Uffels: “I don’t know whether it is the best approach for citizens to play police themselves, but I can well imagine that this is happening more and more. After all, the police capacity is substandard in our opinion.”
More generally, the interest group is concerned about a ‘change in sentiment’ in the village, as a result of which more people decide to intervene themselves. According to the interest group, this also occurs in other villages, such as Roswinkel, Emmer-Compascuum and Valthermond.
The biggest problem is police capacity. This week, Local Interest therefore sent an urgent letter to State Secretary Eric van der Burg.
“It must now become clear that much more police are needed here. The fact that residents almost feel forced to take matters into their own hands is due to the enormous undercapacity of the police. In our opinion, the security guards in Ter Apel cannot handle the situation. “, the letter states.
“And in our village there are so-called ‘street coaches’ who can intervene when necessary, but they are dependent on the police when someone needs to be transferred. If it then takes two hours before the police arrive “That doesn’t make much sense,” are the concerns. “The result is that the street coaches do not feel sufficiently supported. They can no longer rely on coverage from the police.”
It recently became apparent that it can sometimes take so long. After a citizen’s arrest of an asylum seeker with a bag full of stolen goods from a store, citizens had to wait almost two hours for a police car, according to Uffels.
According to the interest group, there is also a shortage of cells. “Recently, an arrested asylum seeker had to be transferred by the police to Leeuwarden. Yes, the police immediately lost a lot of time with that.”
In the urgent letter, the interest group emphasizes that more needs to be done to solve the problems. “It seems clear that Ter Apel can no longer cope,” the association writes. “We can continue to discuss until we weigh an ounce, but final decisions will have to be made in the short term.” The association is mainly considering additional registration centers in the country to relieve the pressure on Ter Apel and the surrounding area.
Uffels emphasizes: “We in the village are not against asylum seekers in general. There are people who had to flee from their country. But there is a group of safe landers, people who actually know that they are not entitled to a residence permit. Below “You have to deal with people who give a shit about everything, that may only be a small group. And unfortunately we are the victims of that.”
The citizen guard of Ter Apel, who took action on Monday, did not want to respond.