SOUTHWOLDE – The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) has found a new location to accommodate asylum seekers for whom there is no room at the registration center in Ter Apel. As of April 9, Zuidwolde in Drenthe, a more than 40-minute drive away, will offer a place to sleep for up to two hundred refugees. Night shelter is provided there for two months.
It is the third location that offers a solution to the overcrowded registration center in the east of Groningen. The influx of asylum seekers has been too high for the number of beds available in Ter Apel. To prevent people from having to sleep outside, a night shelter was initially set up in Stadskanaal. The tents were then placed next to a waste processor in 2e Exloërmond on February 1. That location will remain open a week longer than planned, until the bunk beds, shower and toilet carts are moved to the Leeuwenveenseweg in Zuidwolde on April 9.
Buses
The asylum seekers are in Ter Apel during the day for their registration procedure. In the evening they move to the night shelter for dinner, overnight stay and breakfast. They then return in the morning by bus to East Groningen.
After the planned two months, another municipality will make a location available for the tents on June 9, reports the Drenthe municipality of De Wolden.
No more than 2,000 people are allowed to stay overnight at the Groningen registration center. If this does happen, COA must pay a fine to the municipality of Westerwolde, which the place falls under. Despite the construction of moving people to the night shelter, it has regularly been impossible to stay below the maximum number lately. In the night from Tuesday to Wednesday there were 211 too many people, which cost the COA the fine of 15,000 euros for the 28th time.
Tags: night shelter asylum seekers Ter Apel Drenthe Zuidwolde Domestic
