A new ‘record’ for Ter Apel: the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) expects about a hundred asylum seekers to spend the night from Wednesday to Thursday in the open air in front of the application center gate.
In recent weeks it has happened more often that asylum seekers sleep in the open air for the application center. That’s a few dozen at most. Until now, it was a matter of personal choice.
In these cases, the COA does have a place to sleep somewhere in the country. But some asylum seekers decline this offer, because they are afraid they will miss their appointment the next day for an interview with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). So now it’s about a hundred. Engbers: “Possibly even more.”
This appears to be partly caused by the closure of crisis emergency shelters in Drenthe. That saves 225 places. Fifty of them have now moved on to regular reception centers (AZCs).
The intention was that the remaining asylum seekers, for whom no place to sleep could be found elsewhere, would be transferred to the emergency night shelter in Stadskanaal or Zuidbroek. And that last location, the Eurohal near hotel Van der Valk, turns out not to be available.
This is because COA is only allowed to make limited use of this fall-back option, ie a maximum of twice a week. It is not clear whether that maximum number was reached earlier this week.
RTV Noord reporter Martijn Klungel reported from Ter Apel on Wednesday evening just before 23:30 that asylum seekers were let in to spend the night in one of the waiting rooms of the IND. It is already clear that there is not enough room for everyone, Klungel observes: “In any case, there are people who are obliged to sleep outside.”