Since stones were thrown at the shuttle bus between the shelter ship in Velsen-Noord and Beverwijk station, the bus no longer stops at stops in the village. And it will only become clear next week whether and when that will happen again, the COA reports. It creates a remarkable balance: residents do not seem to be sorry about the current situation, and the asylum seekers are not aware that things could have been done differently. So it seems they don’t worry about it either.
The shuttle bus from the shelter ship in Velsen-Noord to Beverwijk station was completely full on Friday afternoon around 1.15 pm with mainly men, but also a handful of women and children. But the fact that the bus is full is an exception, Yemeni Alfarwq Alshebami knows. After two o’clock the important Friday afternoon prayer for Muslims starts in the mosque near the station in Beverwijk.
“It’s in English,” says the estimated twenties with dark curls: “I usually pray on the ship, but Friday afternoon prayer is important, that’s why so many people are on the bus to go to the mosque.”
Does he mind that the bus no longer stops in Velsen-Noord? He looks surprised: “Did the bus make stops? I’ve been here for two and a half weeks, but it always goes in one line from the ship to the station and back.”
He does know that the ship is in a place called Velsen-Noord, but not that there is also a center there where the bus previously made stops. Let alone one stone throw incident used to be.
He does not miss what he does not know. He shrugs and says: “We can enter Beverwijk here, and take the train to Amsterdam.”
Adjusted route suppressed incidents
According to Velsen-Noords florist and councilor Leo Aardenburg, there were a few incidents in the village before, and after the modified bus route there were no more: “The stones that were thrown at the bus, by Dutch boys, and men from the ship who came here in hanging around the center and allegedly harassing someone. That has been suppressed by not letting the bus stop here anymore.”
And though the arrival of the ship and its inhabitants went ahead without any major problems for the time being, the Velsen-Nordic concerns are certainly not gone yet, he says. “There are more people on the ship now than then. So if the bus stopped here again, maybe more people would come and hang out,” he expresses those concerns.
bumblebee lesson
And it’s small things, which according to the village expert can be explosive. “Recently, some people from the ship accidentally pushed in while there was a long line outside at the pharmacy. It can happen, but if that happens three times, then it’s bumblebee.”
In that context, it would be helpful if extra boas hired by the municipality and COA to maintain order were clearly visible. And they were not in an incident on Thursday, Aardenburg knows.
“There were some Dutch guys kicking shit around the pharmacy here,” he says. “So that was reported, around 2:00 PM. But by the time they got here, it was 3:30 PM.” He wonders: how is that possible, if extra enforcers have been hired?
training
According to the municipality, which speaks on behalf of the enforcers, those times are correct, but the long lead time of the boas was an incident: “The fact that it took an hour and a half was due to lower available boa capacity on part of this day, because part of the team had mandatory training. As a rule, the arrival time in response to a report is less than half an hour.”
According to the spokesperson, evaluations of the boa performances and other matters surrounding the shelter ship will follow in the coming week, when the holidays are over. COA also reports that the bus route between the ship and Beverwijk station will be re-examined next week.
NB. The main photo accompanying this article shows men in front of the shuttle bus that NH Nieuws spoke to earlier in October. They do not appear in this article.