Westerwolde scrambling for help as asylum seekers again risk sleeping outside Ter Apel

The municipality of Westerwolde expects that there will again not be enough room for everyone at the asylum registration center in Ter Apel tonight. Asylum seekers will, therefore, have to be transferred to other locations or end up sleeping outside. The municipality is in contact with several other municipalities to try and find somewhere to accommodate people, a spokesperson said. “That means that the municipality apparently has to take over the work of the COA to provide people with safe accommodation,” she said.

In the night from Monday to Tuesday, 44 asylum seekers were transferred from Ter Apel to a sports hall in Stadskanaal. If Stadskanaal hadn’t made the location available at the last minute, the asylum seekers would have slept outside. “It is unheard of and unthinkable for us that people have to sleep outside,” said the Westerwolde spokesperson. “We are doing everything we can for people to stay in a safe situation.”

On Tuesday, the municipality will consult with various mayors in case people need to be relocated again. “We know that various municipalities are very well-disposed towards us and want to help us and support us.”

There is a chance that people will have to travel by bus to another location very late, just like last night. The last shuttle bus for asylum seekers from Emmen arrives in Ter Apel at 00:30 a.m. If there are still people in it who want to apply for asylum and there’s no room in Ter Apel, they’ll have to be transported to another location during the early hours of the morning.

A spokesperson for the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) said she could not yet estimate what the situation would be like on Tuesday evening. “That also depends on how many people arrive today,” she said. The planning shows that few people will move from Ter Apel to other locations on Tuesday. “So we have to see how we are going to handle all the people who are arriving.”

The spokesperson said that the COA is continuously talking to municipalities throughout the country about creating shelter space for asylum seekers. “That is our daily routine.” There are also talks on Tuesday, but she did not say with which municipalities.