Skip to main content
Home

Main navigation

  • Top stories
  • Health
  • Crime
  • Politics
  • Business
  • Tech
  • Culture
  • Sports
  • Weird
  • 1-1-2
Image
Red Cross tents at the Ter Apel asylum application center, 11 May 2022
Red Cross tents at the Ter Apel asylum application center, 11 May 2022 - Credit: Red Cross / Red Cross - License: All Rights Reserved
Politics
asylum seeker
Ter Apel
asylum application
Ministry of Justice and Security
Red Cross
asylum shelter
Eric van der Burg
Marieke van Schaik
Thursday, 12 May 2022 - 12:00
Share this:
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • linkedin
  • whatsapp
  • reddit

Tents set up outside overcrowded asylum center

On Wednesday evening, the Red Cross set up tents at the overcrowded asylum application center in Ter Apel to give asylum seekers a place to sleep. On Tuesday night, dozens of asylum seekers slept outside for several hours because there was no room in the center. The aid organization wanted to prevent a similar situation on Wednesday.

The Red Cross expected that about 200 asylum seekers would have nowhere to go on Wednesday. But the tents turned out to be unnecessary. Groningen managed to arrange emergency shelter for 100 people in Heerenveen, and the rest spent the night in the application center's lobby, according to BNR.

Nevertheless, Red Cross director Marieke van Schaik called the situation in Ter Apel "an absolute low point" for asylum reception in the Netherlands. The situation in the overcrowded application center, where all new asylum seekers have to report, is "below any humanitarian level and downright unacceptable," she said to BNR.

Van Schaik called it "distressing" that people have to sleep outside at the asylum application center while "many empty beds" are dedicated to Ukraine refugees. "Municipalities that have not yet done so must now take responsibility. It is time for municipalities to open up available shelter spaces to refugees, wherever they come from. Anyone who asks for asylum in the Netherlands must be treated with dignity."

State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum) said on Wednesday that he expected the severe space shortage at Ter Apel to continue for almost a week. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) expects about 200 new asylum seekers per day in the coming period.

Follow us:

Latest stories

  • Court orders artist Tinkebell to retract accusation that former MP assaulted a woman
  • Woman gives birth on the A12 near Utrecht during rush hour
  • Two schools win Rotterdam Architecture Prize for 2023
  • ChatGPT helping criminals make explosives, commit cybercrime: report
  • Dutch soldiers arrested on cocaine charges in Newcastle
  • Dutch child among six stabbed in random attack on playground in Annecy, France

Top stories

  • Dutch child among six stabbed in random attack on playground in Annecy, France
  • Night train to Amsterdam, Hamburg evacuated after fire breaks out in Austria tunnel
  • Netherlands residents much more worried about their financial position
  • Dutch banks lower economic growth predictions after first quarter contraction
  • Investigators find €80 million in cocaine at Dutch ports
  • Appeal denied: Joran van der Sloot temporarily extradited to U.S. tomorrow

© 2012-2023, NL Times, All rights reserved.

Footer menu

  • Privacy
  • Contact
  • Partner content