Ter Apel asylum shelter will soon turn kids away, Red Cross warns as temps rise to 32°C

The Red Cross fears that “soon women and children in Ter Apel will also be left without a place to stay” if the Dutch government does not intervene “immediately.” There are extra concerns about asylum seekers waiting outside the Ter Apel registration center, given the spell of hot weather the Netherlands has been experiencing. On Tuesday, maximums in Ter Apel are expected to climb to 32 degrees Celsius.

In recent days, the registration center for asylum seekers arriving in the Netherlands has been turning away single men. The aid organization calls it “incomprehensible” that sufficient shelter space cannot be provided. “It is the government’s duty to offer people a place, but today people are once again standing in the grass waiting without a hope,” said Harm Goossens, director of the Dutch Red Cross. “Last week, the Red Cross even had to call municipalities to organize shelter.”

In recent days, asylum seekers for whom there was no space in Ter Apel were accommodated in a convention center in Groningen. Last week, Stadskanaal and Gieten provided emergency shelters, consisting of camp beds in large rooms, to prevent people from having to sleep outside. So far, only adult men traveling alone had to make use of these bare-bones shelters. They slept there and were brought back to Ter Apel the next morning.

“But we fear that, if this situation continues, women and children will soon end up on a camp cot as well. Surely we cannot let that happen as a country?” Goossens said.

The Red Cross previously called it “dehumanizing” that there is no long-term accommodation for all asylum seekers. “People are tired and in need of rest,” the Red Cross said. “This uncertainty and the constant moving back and forth are mentally and physically exhausting. The only real solution is for the government to provide a place for weeks or even months, where people can also stay during the day.

The reception center in Ter Apel has space for a maximum of 2,000 people. It has been accommodating more people than that for months. Last week, the occupancy rose to over 2,300 - the highest number in two years. According to the reception agency COA, it cannot guarantee safety and livability on the site when it is this overcrowded.