Around 300 asylum seekers spend the night outdoors once again at Ter Apel

Around 300 people slept outside again at the registration center in Ter Apel, said a spokesperson for the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA). Asylum seekers have had to spend the night outside countless times in recent months.

About 250 asylum seekers spent Friday night outside in Ter Apel. On Thursday night, there were also around 300. It was the first time that that number was so high.

Ter Apel has been struggling for some time with great crowds because the flow of permit holders from reception locations to homes is stagnating, partly due to the overcrowded housing market. There is room for 2,000 people in Ter Apel. The weekend is normally not the busiest in the center, with Monday and Tuesday usually bringing the most traffic.

Refugees' council Vluchtelingenwerk is planning to sue the government and COA to force a solution for the reception crisis. Although the government has requested that municipalities provide reception locations, this has proven "insufficient," the council states.

For example, an "asylum hotel" purchased in Tubbergen has received significant pushback from the community and outright refusal from the municipality. And in the village of Velsen, where a cruise ship intended to house 1,000 asylum seekers will dock, local residents also object to the plan.