Refugees protest against poor living conditions in Nijmegen camp

Roughly 100 Syrian asylum seekers from the Heumensoord camp in Nijmegen have revolted in the streets on Tuesday against the living conditions that they find themselves in. The asylum seekers demanded improvement, waving homemade banners scripted, “We live in open air, our children in danger and risk the biting cold”. The group has a number of concerns, including not knowing if there is pork in their food, the tents in the camp being too cold and amenities being in too short availability. The camp has only four taps for the nearly 700 who have collected there, the Gelderlander reports. While some Syrian refugees have embarked on a hunger strike, other groups have threatened to sleep on the streets if the situation does not improve, mostly men and children with only a small proportion of women.The revolt action has been reported by De Gelderlander to be in response to calls that the refugees would still be in Heumensoord for months before the asylum procedure begins. The view of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) is that nobody seeking asylum should be spending the night on the streets.