The Groningen application center has been busy for a year now, which can in principle accommodate two thousand refugees. That capacity is systematically exceeded. In the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, seven hundred people slept outside, a new record. Even the COA had not foreseen this coming.
The overload leads to tension, aggression and unsanitary situations. “It is escalating,” said Koen Schuiling (VVD), mayor of Groningen and chairman of the Security Region, in the Newspaper of the North. “It’s become unmanageable.”
It is yet another cry for help about the registration center. Schuiling previously referred to Ter Apel as ‘the Dutch Lampedusa’. It changed little. On the contrary, the situation continued to deteriorate.
Ultimatum
Schuiling is now giving the cabinet an ultimatum. On Friday, overflow locations must be available near Ter Apel, where refugees who want to start the application procedure will be temporarily accommodated, if necessary forced. They can then return to Ter Apel when it is their turn. Now they often prefer to stay in Ter Apel, for fear of losing their place in the queue. ‘People are crowding in front of the gate’, says Schuiling.
The situation also leads to dissatisfaction and concerns among the systematically overburdened staff of the organizations involved. On Tuesday, some of the COA employees went on strike. They feel that they can no longer take responsibility for the situation. The Red Cross closed the newly reopened support point on site again on Wednesday due to overload.
Employees are frustrated about the long queues for the site and the increased insecurity. Robberies, fights and stabbing incidents were previously reported from the queue. According to a COA spokesperson, staff sometimes have to enter the center from another side or move around the site in a car, instead of walking.
Preventive frisking
The mayor of Westerwolde, which includes Ter Apel, designated the area in front of the application center as a safety risk area on Friday. As a result, preventive searches are now allowed and camera surveillance is possible. These measures are primarily intended to curb the nuisance caused by the relatively small group of ‘safe emigrants’. Schuiling also wants the temporary shelters to be removed next week.
State Secretary for Asylum Eric van der Burg (VVD) is aware of the ‘crying to heaven’ situation in Ter Apel. He said that on Tuesday evening in the city council of Tubbergen. The fact that so many people have to sleep outside at the registration center, he argued in Twente, is the reason for granting a permit for an asylum seekers’ center in a hotel in the village of Albergen against the will of the municipality.
But the approximately two hundred asylum seekers who will probably be able to receive there from mid-September will not structurally relieve the pressure on Ter Apel. Van der Burg: ‘A lot more reception places are really needed.’
cruise ship
A cruise ship can still dock at Velsen-Noord and house a thousand refugees. Initially, the quay was not strong enough. The municipality cannot yet say when the first asylum seekers will board, but the intended date of 1 September will in any case not be achieved.
Van der Burg, perhaps against his better judgment, continues to hope for voluntary cooperation from municipalities. About two-thirds do not yet offer childcare. Force, as in Tubbergen, is experienced by the State Secretary as ‘a defeat’. But the minister does not have many alternatives. Agreements with many temporary reception locations also expire. ‘Regular asylum seekers’ centers are needed.’
Also for Schuiling, forcing municipalities is not a taboo, although VVD members elsewhere in the country are protesting against it. Many Groningen municipalities are already taking their share, he says. ‘If all 344 Dutch municipalities would do that, we would have no problem.’