According to RTV Noord, fighting broke out again at the beginning of the evening between the waiting asylum seekers. The police have arrived en masse.
On Tuesday evening, about three hundred people will stay on the lawn near the center. But it is possible that some of them can still be accommodated at another location. That is why it is not yet clear exactly how many people have to sleep in the open air.
The Groningen application center has been too full for months, which means that people sometimes have to spend the night outside. This is the result of the halted flow of asylum seekers. Asylum seekers’ centers no longer have a place and status holders cannot move on to a house due to, among other things, the overheated housing market.
Service point
The humanitarian service point of the Red Cross in front of the entrance to the application center will open again on Wednesday morning, a spokeswoman for the aid organization reported. The Red Cross closed the service point after fighting broke out at the registration center in Ter Apel on Sunday.
“Safety is important,” said a Red Cross spokeswoman about the closure. That is why employees have now received extra training, “so that they know better how to react if such a situation arises again.” The service point is also still closed to give emergency workers some breathing room after Sunday.
The spokeswoman does not know to what extent people from the Red Cross have witnessed the fight at Ter Apel this weekend. However, “stuff has been lost” from the aid organization.
Asylum seekers waiting in front of the application center can go to the humanitarian service point in Ter Apel for first aid and information. The service point receives 155 requests for help every day, according to the spokeswoman. “We are happy to be able to open again.”