More incidents on the street in Ter Apel; municipality will receive four extra boas

The municipality of Westerwolde will receive four extra boas so that there is more supervision in Ter Apel, where the national registration center for asylum seekers is located. At the moment the municipality has to make do with two boas.

Acting mayor Leendert Klaassen announced that the municipality will receive the first reinforcements next week. Then two new boas from the so-called ‘flex pool’ will start, led by the municipality of Groningen. This is a group of boas that can be deployed throughout the province of Groningen from April 2.

The pressure on Ter Apel has been increasing again recently, because too many people are structurally staying in the only registration center for asylum seekers in our country. According to the municipality, this has direct consequences for the nuisance: it is increasing.

Nevertheless, Klaassen sees in the latest figures that the number of shoplifting has decreased. “That is a substantial decline,” the acting mayor explains. At the same time, ‘the number of other incidents in public spaces is increasing’. It is unclear exactly what these incidents are.

The civil guard in Ter Apel previously concluded that there is an increase in the number of asylum seekers sleeping outside in the village, something that previously only happened sporadically. A few weeks ago it suddenly happened several times a week.

Klaassen has also heard that, but says he has no figures. He hopes that the extra boas, who also have to keep an extra eye on things in the evenings, can keep an eye on asylum seekers sleeping outside.

By the way, he recently met the vigilante for the first time. He called that an ‘open conversation’. “At the same time, we have also expressed our concerns when it is an ongoing development.” He urged the group to stay in contact with the police and military police.