The Red Cross has started to tear down the tents at the application center for asylum seekers in Ter Apel. According to the aid organization, the two hundred sleeping places are no longer necessary now that new shelters have been found spread across the Netherlands, NOS reports.
The tents were set up early last week. Initially there were ten tents, but that became fifty the next day. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers had asked for the tents because the application center could not handle the crowds.
On Thursday, the Red Cross denounced the state of affairs at the application center. People in the tents were not given food or drink for fifteen hours in a row, there were riots and, according to a spokesman, the tents were stolen.
A day later, the cabinet set up a national crisis organization team to tackle the reception problems. State Secretary Van der Burg (VVD) then said that he would like to have a plan ready for a structural solution today.
The 25 mayors of the Security Council will talk tonight in Utrecht about the crisis reception of asylum seekers. Among other things, the crisis plan that the cabinet announced on Friday, in addition to the crisis emergency shelter that the security regions themselves are already organizing. State Secretary Van der Burg takes a seat.
The crisis emergency shelter for the overcrowded application center in Ter Apel has been on the agenda of the Security Council for weeks. Recently, the mayors said that it will be difficult to realize locations for hundreds of refugees for a longer period of time. This is annoying for the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers COA, because if a crisis emergency shelter closes, the asylum seekers who stayed there will return to Ter Apel. The intention is to set up a second registration center elsewhere in the Netherlands.
The mayors also discuss the separate reception for Ukrainian refugees. The reception places in municipalities are gradually filling up. There are still host families who want to accommodate Ukrainian refugees, but that could become difficult in the upcoming holiday months. Municipalities and security regions must mediate between families and Ukrainians.