More than three hundred asylum seekers will be moved from Ter Apel after the municipalities of Amsterdam, Nijmegen and Oss offered them shelter, reported RTV Drenthe.
The offer came as a big relief for administrators of the reception center, which in the past months received criticism for the unhealthy conditions its guests are kept in, caused mostly by overcrowding.
Ter Apel – which can host no more than 2000 people – had tents set up as a temporary emergency solution, but those were removed on April 19th after the permit expired. Until the very evening, nobody knew where hundreds of refugees would sleep since there was no place for them on the premises anymore.
It is not clear how long people transferred from Ter Apel will be able to stay in their new emergency accommodation in Amsterdam, Oss, and Nijmegen. Similar temporary solutions were adapted during a previous crisis in October, but the relief was only temporary.
State Secretary for Asylum Eric van der Burg expressed on Twitter gratitude towards the three municipalities that stepped up to help but added that the additional shelter offered doesn’t solve the structural problems of asylum seekers’ reception in the Netherlands.
A few weeks ago, Groningen mayor and Head of the Groningen Security Region Koen Schuiling had expressed worry about the living conditions of asylum seekers in Ter Apel and declared he felt The Hague and other municipalities weren’t doing their part to solve the situation.
