Asylum seekers have slept in emergency night shelters 60,000 times since last December

Since December last year, an average of 181 asylum seekers from Ter Apel have been taken to another location to sleep almost every day, because there were not enough beds in the registration center. Together they have spent 60,000 nights in emergency night shelters. A "very undesirable" situation, according to aid organizations Red Cross, VluchtelingenWerk, and Defence for Children.

The ANP has examined the figures requested by the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA). The emergency accommodation with beds for 200 people was first used by the COA in December 2023. The tents were first set up in Stadskanaal, then in Tweede Exloërmond, Zuidwolde, Nieuwe Pekela, and now in Beilen.

The asylum seekers were taken there in the evening by Ter Apel and then took the bus back to the registration center after breakfast. Some made the journey several times. The Red Cross has calculated that a refugee slept in the emergency night shelter for an average of three nights.

“Sometimes there were families or a single mother with three children,” observed the Red Cross, which was sent to the locations by COA. The Refugee Council described the “shuttling back and forth” between the night shelters and Ter Apel as “highly undesirable”. Due to the “great lack of privacy, peace, good and clean facilities, and adequate food”, the aid organization wants this use to be avoided in the future. Defense for Children argues that the relocation leads to “further instability for vulnerable refugee children, which is detrimental to their development”.

The form of reception is at odds with a “humane reception”, as COA says. “You can see that people are exhausted from traveling back and forth all the time,” says regional manager Paula Lambeck. “You could say that they have a roof over their heads and are given food and drink. But that's the minimum you can offer them.”

According to Defence for Children, moving asylum children from Ter Apel to an emergency night shelter is in conflict with the Convention on the Rights of the Child. By taking them to another municipality for one night, the obligation to put the interests of the child first and the right to development are not being complied with, according to the organization. "Frequent moving is demonstrably harmful to the mental health of children and can lead to depressive complaints, behavioral problems, and developmental delays."

The aid organization claims these additional movements will lead to "even more instability for vulnerable refugee children and that is detrimental to their development". Although the emergency night shelter, which is currently in Beilen, has not been used since November 6, it is expected that this will happen again in the near future. Children could then end up there again, according to Defence for Children based on information from the COA.

Confronted with the figures, Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber reiterates her credo of focusing on limiting the influx of asylum seekers. “We have to because society can no longer cope,” she said. Regarding the situation in which asylum seekers currently find themselves, the PVV Minister said: “We must ensure that people are received properly, we have laws and regulations for this and we are complying with them.”

The mayor of Westerwolde, to which Ter Apel belongs, describes the situation as “dramatic”. But according to Jaap Velema, there is “no alternative” apart from the distribution law. The mayor sees a bleak future, as the Cabinet now wants to withdraw this law. “Because this is not an immigration problem. Hence my frustration and anger.”

Costs for emergency night shelter for asylum seekers run into the millions

The use of emergency night shelters to relieve the pressure on the asylum seekers center in Ter Apel is causing extra high costs, according to Paula Lambeck, regional manager of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA). "A location such as the one in Beilen now costs around 7,000 euros per night if it is not used, and around 18,500 euros if two hundred people stay overnight." The costs run into millions of euros.

According to an administrative agreement between the municipality of Westerwolde and the COA, a maximum of 2,000 asylum seekers may be on the grounds in Ter Apel. This limit was exceeded almost daily last year. The asylum seekers who could not be accommodated there were taken to an emergency night shelter in another northern municipality, such as Stadskanaal and Nieuwe Pekela. "But that costs us a lot of money," says the COA manager. "We pay rent for the land, tents, catering, sanitary facilities, cleaning, bus transport, security and the extra staff. That adds up considerably."

Lambeck regrets that since December last year, an average of 181 asylum seekers have been brought to the emergency accommodation center almost every day because no space has been found for them at the registration center or elsewhere in the country. "We are crossing borders. The workload is enormous and the conditions for asylum seekers are not humane, but the alternative is to let people sleep outside."

In August and October, the need was so great that even the emergency night shelter with 200 beds did not offer enough sleeping places. Emergency locations elsewhere in the country were used, such as in Ugchelen with greater travel distances. Such locations also cost "a lot of money, because they have to be arranged urgently", according to Lambeck.

The municipalities around Ter Apel have been helping out in turn since December last year by making a location available for a number of weeks. The municipality of Midden-Drenthe is currently taking on this task in Beilen.

Due to the lower inflow and the opening of a large temporary shelter on the event site in Biddinghuizen, the pressure on the registration center in Ter Apel has decreased considerably in recent weeks. Since November 6, the location in Beilen has been temporarily out of use, but it remains open. This also costs the COA thousands of euros per day, for example for renting the sanitary facilities and securing the site. The COA expects to need the emergency night shelter again after New Year's Eve when other temporary locations in the country close.