The special shelter for asylum seekers with little chance of a residence permit will open, as it now seems, sometime next week in Ter Apel. Plans to arrange this earlier were there, but were delayed. “It takes a long time,” says mayor Eric van Oosterhout in all honesty. “That will undoubtedly have its reasons. But let’s also look a little more optimistic: next week is the village festival here, hopefully everything will be arranged before then and the nuisance will be a lot less.”
The Emmer mayor was present at the talks that the VVD politician had with villagers and left a positive impression. “Van der Burg understands the frustration and listened carefully to residents who are very concerned about the nuisance asylum seekers. Yes, I thought he did that well,” said the complimentary mayor. “And I have the impression that people are working very hard to reduce the nuisance.”
The special shelter for the problem cases, mainly from North Africa, seems to be a good step towards further limiting the nuisance, according to Van Oosterhout. “It may be that asylum seekers know more quickly where they stand, so that those who actually have nothing to do here are out of the area as quickly as possible.”
Watch the interview with Eric van Oosterhout here.