Up to 140 asylum seekers can be accommodated at the Bankenbosch prison in Veenhuizen for two months. The municipality of Noordenveld has announced this.
Asylum seekers can go to Veenhuizen from August. This temporarily relieves the overcrowded reception center in Ter Apel. The reception lasts until October. The security regions have indicated that they will cooperate with crisis emergency relief until this month. In addition, all prisons in Veenhuizen will be renovated from October, which means that people will have to leave anyway.
Mayor Klaas Smid van Veenhuizen calls the situation in Ter Apel ‘poor’. “People have to spend the night out there and on chairs. I see it as our humanitarian duty to help.”
The Penitentiary Institution (PI) Veenhuizen has three locations: Norgerhaven, Esserheem and Klein Bankenbosch. Groot Bankenbosch was also one of the prison locations before, but closed its doors in 2013. It also served as an asylum seekers center.