The PBL reception location in Ter Apel, which is supposed to combat nuisance, will be expanded to a hundred places by the end of January. The State Secretary wrote this in a letter to the House.
So far, in the eyes of the Westerwolde municipal council, the development of this new ‘process availability location’ has been going far too slowly. The PBL was launched in the spring as an important means of combating nuisance. In the PBL, disadvantaged asylum seekers (who, for example, come from safe countries) go through the asylum procedure more quickly. To do this, they have to stay indoors for a large part of the time.
Too few places to have an effect on nuisance
The PBL opened in July. For a long time there was only room for 10 asylum seekers, since October there have been 30. Since there is an average group of 150 to 200 underprivileged asylum seekers in Ter Apel, and most of the nuisance perpetrators come from this group, this is too little to have an effect. on the nuisance.
The capacity must be increased very quickly, the municipality of Westerwolde demanded from State Secretary Eric van der Burg during his visit on October 12. Westerwolde found the measures he subsequently announced by letter insufficient. What was in that letter has not been made public.
100 spots on January 29
The replacement for the ill Van der Burg, Christophe van der Maat, is now writing to the House of Representatives that the PBL will have 50 places from November 29, and the intended 100 places on January 29. “As already discussed with the local government in Ter Apel,” writes the State Secretary.
In the meantime, Van der Maat also sent a non-public letter with stricter measures against nuisance to the municipality of Westerwolde on Friday. In addition to the PBL, this will probably also concern the distribution of underprivileged asylum seekers across the rest of the country. The question is whether the municipal council will be satisfied with the commitments this time.