Disagreement on counting asylum seekers in Ter Apel; Asylum agency fined €982,500 so far

There is a disagreement between the municipality of Westerwolde and the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) on whether the Ter Apel registration center exceeded its 2,000-person limit for several days in March. To avoid a “legal splitting of hairs,” the COA agreed to pay half of the penalty. The agency has paid 982,500 euros so far, NU.nl reports.

In January, the court ruled that the COA cannot accommodate more than 2,000 people in the asylum registration center in Ter Apel. Every day that the number of asylum seekers in the registration center exceeds 2,000, the COA must pay 15,000 euros in penalties to the municipality of Westerwolde, which covers Ter Apel.

According to the municipality, the COA exceeded that limit every day between March 2 and 8. The municipality argues that when buses with asylum seekers are taken to a special night shelter in the evening, fewer than 2,000 people are indeed counted in the morning. But that number is exceeded when the buses bring those asylum seekers back later in the morning.

The COA disagrees with that reasoning but agreed to pay a penalty of 52,500 euros for half of the seven days. “We have come to this conclusion because there is no point in getting bogged down in legal hair-splitting,” a COA spokesperson told the newspaper.

Both the COA and Westerwolde told NU.nl that their goal is to ensure that the Ter Apel center is not overcrowded. “Our main concern is to return to normality. It is not about the money,” a municipal spokesperson said. The disagreement has not yet been resolved.

The number of asylum seekers in Ter Apel has hovered around 2,200 for several weeks again. Repeated calls for more crisis shelters have not yielded much. So far, the COA has paid 982,500 euros in fines to Westerwolde. That amount can run up to a maximum of 1.5 million euros. It is not clear what will happen when that amount has been reached.