The Red Cross warns of the ‘inhumane and untenable situation’ that has arisen for the asylum seekers who sleep in the tents placed by the aid organization in Ter Apel. They have received no food and water from 10 p.m. last night to 1 p.m. this afternoon, the aid organization said.
According to the Red Cross, ‘other necessary help’ was also missing at the registration center of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) in the East Groningen town.
“Runs have broken out on the site and the tents have been stolen. The Red Cross itself provided food and water for this group at 1 p.m. on Thursday. This is not the responsibility of the aid organization, but the Red Cross does not want people to be without food and water for that long,” the Red Cross said.
Marieke van Schaik, director of the Red Cross, is in urgent consultation with the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) and State Secretary Eric van den Burg (Asylum and Migration) to discuss this emergency situation.
“We are very upset about this situation,” says Van Schaik. “We know that COA staff is working very hard to manage the situation and that this is difficult. At the same time, we see that the refugees are the victims of this reception crisis in the Netherlands. This is about people on the run looking for a safe place. Families with children. We cannot treat people this way. We call on the government and all responsible parties to come up with a solution as soon as possible. The Red Cross will remove its tents in a few days.”
Crisis emergency shelters
In the past 24 hours, the COA had to take at least 180 asylum seekers to crisis emergency reception locations elsewhere in the country, because the capacity in Ter Apel was once again fully occupied. More than 50 refugees were accommodated in Limburg. The rest is divided over locations in Stadskanaal and Groningen.
In addition, 150 asylum seekers slept in tents set up by the Red Cross on the site in Ter Apel. 30 people had to spend the night in a chair, the COA said earlier today.
According to the COA, the problem remains the lack of traffic flow. The asylum seekers’ centers are completely full, because there is not enough other living space for status holders. Emergency shelter locations are sometimes only available for a short time. If such locations close, the refugees residing there will return to Ter Apel. The daily intake of new asylum seekers is not much higher than normal, the COA says, but not enough people move on to places where they can stay for a longer period of time.
Second Application Center
The problems in Ter Apel have been going on for months. They would like to see a second registration center opened elsewhere in the country in the Groningen village, so that not all the pressure falls on Ter Apel’s shoulders.
“There is simply a lot of nuisance, you can’t ignore that”, said CDA councilor Herma Hemmen earlier this year when this site in Ter Apel visited. “Local entrepreneurs suffer from shoplifting, groups of boys roam through the village under the influence of alcohol, sometimes just walking through gardens. That is of course not fun.”
Earlier this week, the Council for Public Administration (ROB) and the Advisory Committee on Immigration Affairs (ACVZ) wrote to the cabinet that the great need in asylum reception is ‘a crisis that the government itself creates and maintains’. Municipalities should now be able to be obliged to receive asylum seekers. Money must be made available for that, according to the advice.
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