The municipality of Westerwolde, where Ter Apel is located, will take the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) to court. Mayor Jaap Velema announced this on Friday in conversation with One today. Westerwolde wants to enforce that the COA adheres to the agreements, namely: a maximum of two thousand asylum seekers at the reception location in Ter Apel. Currently 2,200 people live there.
Velema called the situation in Ter Apel on Friday “unworkable and inhumane”. According to him, a “point has been reached in the village where the situation is no longer acceptable and legal intervention is required.” According to Velema, the decisive factor in taking the step to court is the situation in recent months. “The inspection report also indicated that a number above two thousand leads to social insecurity and a non-sanitary situation.” According to the Inspectorate Due to the limited reception capacity, “the most basic requirements of reception in terms of bed and bath have recently not been met”.
The mayor says he is taking the step to court “reluctantly”. However, according to him, the current situation creates dangerous situations. Not only in the registration center, but also in the center of Ter Apel. “The consequences of the problems with asylum reception in the Netherlands have been disproportionately passed on to Ter Apel and its residents for far too long.”
Outgoing State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum, VVD) announced last week that the cabinet will forcibly accommodate 1,360 status holders who are currently staying in the asylum seeker center and waiting for a home in hotels in the municipality where they are staying, or in the near there. Van der Burg wants to prevent status holders from “occupying regular places in asylum seeker centers for longer.”