The maximum occupancy of the asylum seekers center in Ter Apel of 2000 asylum seekers may no longer be exceeded. The municipality of Westerwolde, which includes Ter Apel, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) and the Ministry of Justice and Security have agreed on this during talks with the National Ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen.
Van Zutphen was asked by Westerwolde to mediate between the municipality and other parties in the asylum reception, after asylum seekers had to sleep outside at the application center last summer. Since the beginning of this year, the ombudsman has held four meetings with the parties involved, including State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum).
“The municipality of Westerwolde, the COA and the Ministry of J&V want to prevent a situation such as that which occurred last summer in and around the Ter Apel reception location,” Van Zutphen writes to the city council. He reports, among other things, that emergency measures will be taken in the short term to prevent exceeding the maximum occupancy.
The municipality, the COA, the ministry, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) and the Department of Aliens Police, Identification and Human Trafficking (AVIM) will also continue discussions to ensure that the agreement is actually fulfilled. They will also discuss the long-term perspective of the reception location.
When it was announced last week that thousands of extra reception places are needed, Van der Burg already said that Ter Apel will be spared in the event of a (too) high influx of asylum seekers. “I told the Board that if things go wrong again, the reception in Ter Apel will not be arranged again,” said Van der Burg in an explanation of the prognosis of the number of asylum seekers.