The Red Cross makes an urgent appeal to the cabinet to open a second application center urgently due to the “extremely urgent” situation in the asylum reception. Then people can register faster and wait for the asylum procedure “at least in an emergency shelter”, according to the aid organization.
The cabinet is in the process of opening a second application center in the Noordoostpolder municipality in Flevoland. Setting up and making the center in the village of Bant operational would take two months from July. Asylum seekers will soon be able to apply for asylum there by appointment. But given the current situation, asylum seekers can “no longer wait” for this center, according to Red Cross director Marieke van Schaik.
Due to a shortage of housing, people who are allowed to stay in the Netherlands are not given a house, so that they occupy places in the asylum seekers’ centres. Ultimately, this also means that in Ter Apel “people have been sleeping on chairs and tables for months and recently even in the open air”, Van Schaik sums up. “But every time you think that the bottom in the shelter has been reached, we slide down another layer. That is downright inhumane.”
The organization helps volunteers in the application center during the past warm week, among other things by handing out water, ice cream, sunscreen and caps. “We saw people there who needed medical help. And poor hygiene conditions,” says Van Schaik.
“What we are also concerned about is the lack of information among the people who refuse to go on the bus to a crisis emergency shelter. They preferred to wait outside day and night, because they were afraid of losing their place in the queue.” Those who did go to a reception location did not know how and when to come back to register.
The Red Cross previously set up tents in Ter Apel, but the organization does not want to start again six weeks after the removal. The tents “do not offer a full-fledged humanitarian solution, especially in the absence of safety, food, drink and sanitation”.
Last night it was announced that the chairman of the Groningen security region, mayor Koen Schuiling of the city of Groningen, is investigating the legal possibilities to temporarily close Ter Apel due to the bad situation there. In March, temporary closure options were also considered, but in the end it didn’t get that far.