Safety office, mayor blocked plan to provide tents for asylum seekers sleeping outside

The Health and Youth Care Inspectorate (IGJ) wanted to place large tents and showers in front of the asylum registration center in Ter Apel to shelter the hundreds of asylum seekers who had to sleep outside last summer. But the municipality of Westerwolde and the local safety office, Veiligheidsregio Groningen, blocked the plan, NOS and RTV Noord reported based on documents received by appealing to the Open Government Act.

According to the broadcasters, the Veiligheidsregio refused to allow tents and showers because of the image that this could evoke nationwide. The safety office worried that it would make other municipalities less willing to take in asylum seekers, they wrote based on WhatsApp conversations between Koen Schuiling, the chairman of Veiligheidsregio Groningen, and IGJ chief inspector Angela van der Putten.

The IGJ first sent inspectors to Ter Apel on Friday, August 26, following the death of a 3-month-old baby in the application center. They found hundreds of asylum seekers sleeping outside on the grass. The inspectors reported a “great risk of outbreaks of infectious diseases due to the total lack of hygiene” and stressed that “immediate action is needed.”

That same day, chief inspector Van der Putten contacted Schuiling, the point of contact for decisions about the area around the application center, as the head of the safety office. The chief inspector demanded improvement. That evening Schuiling replied that he “has managed to get hundreds of people away by making a penetrating appeal to colleagues.” The next day, Van der Putten replied that “actions have been taken, but the situation is still very worrying.”

On Sunday, August 28, the Inspectorate again visited Ter Apel and concluded that the situation had not improved sufficiently. IGJ drew up an improvement plan that same afternoon, also informing Minister Ernst Kuipers of Public Health of the situation.

The safety office replaced dirty portable toilets and installed extra drinking water points. The Red Cross kept 200 camp beds and sleeping bags on hand for asylum seekers who have to sleep outside. But the IGJ demanded more: “Shower facilities are absolutely necessary to get basic hygiene in order,” and the asylum seekers must sleep in at least a tent with a floor, it said in the email with the improvement plan. The tents, in particular, were a sensitive topic, as the security region removed comparable tents from Ter Apel earlier, causing controversy.

The Veiligheidsregio and the municipality refused to place shower facilities and tents. The Veiligheidsregio said in an email to IGJ: “Based on the priority to empty the field, no go-ahead can be given yet, to prevent a national signal being sent that, with extra hygiene measures, staying on the field outside Ter Apel is acceptable.” Mayor Jaap Velema of Westerwolde indicated several times that he would reject any requests to place tents outside the Ter Apel center.

The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) eventually did place shower facilities on its ground where the safety office has less say. It created an opening in the fence, so that asylum seekers from outside the gates could use the showers.

The last contact between Schuiling and the chief inspector was on September 10. The safety office chairman sent photos showing a field empty of people, with some trash, an unfolded tent, and dirty sheets all that remained. “Now, just a garbage truck,” Schuiling texted. The chief inspector responded: “It is great that we managed to accommodate people!”

NOS and RTV Noord asked the IGJ and the Veiligheidsregio Groningen whether they’d like to respond before they published the article. The safety office repeated that additional facilities at Ter Apel are not a structural solution to the reception problem. “Asylum seekers have the right to a dignified reception with a real roof over their heads and sufficient sanitary facilities, food and drink, and social and physical safety.”

Bot the IGJ and safety office emphasized that the irritable texts were due to the tense situation, they cleared the air, and the two parties are not opposed to each other.