Asylum agency's fines for overcrowding Ter Apel registration center tops €1 million

The penalties that the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) must pay for overcrowding the asylum registration center in Ter Apel top 1 million euros today. Last night, more than the permitted 2,000 asylum seekers spent the night there, a COA spokesperson confirmed to NOS.

The Netherlands has been facing a shortage of accommodation space for asylum seekers for years, resulting in the Ter Apel registration center being regularly overcrowded with people sleeping on the floor or in chairs. In the summer of 2022, hundreds of people ended up sleeping outside for weeks on end.

The municipality of Westerwolde, which covers Ter Apel, took the COA to court, arguing that the overcrowded registration center causes unsafe situations for the asylum seekers and the municipality’s other residents. In January, the court ruled that the COA must keep the Ter Apel center at or below its 2,000-people capacity and pay a 15,000 euro fine to Westerwolde for each day it exceeds that limit. The 2,000 limit has been exceed for several weeks.

Earlier this week, it became clear that the COA also had to pay the fine for several days in March. That brings the total counter to 1,012,500 euros in penalty payments on Thursday.

It is not yet clear what the municipality will do with that money. The mayor and alderman must make a plan for it, but that will not happen until after the summer recess, a spokesperson for Gemeentebelang Westerwolde, the largest party in the municipal council, told NOS.

A municipality spokesperson told NU.nl that this isn’t about the money for Westerwolde. The municipality’s main goal is a return to normalcy.