The problems surrounding the reception of asylum seekers in the Expo Hall at the TT Circuit in Assen have still not been resolved after a week. The shelter has been overcrowded for a week and, according to sources, almost seven hundred people are staying there, while a maximum of five hundred are allowed.
The Expo Hall has served as a ‘waiting room’ for the reception center in Ter Apel since July 1 last year. According to a spokesperson for the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), it is a repetitive story. “We depend on the flow at other reception centers, so that we can take the people in Assen to another place. If that does not work, it is also difficult for us to remove the pressure in Assen.”
Moreover, there is little prospect of improvement in the short term. “The puzzle is difficult to put together. We are dependent on different parties,” emphasizes COA. The extra crowds ensure a full and busy hall. Nothing is known about any disturbances.
More people are also staying at the temporary night shelter along the Leeuwenveenseweg in Zuidwolde than initially intended. For example, 220 refugees slept there during the night from Thursday to Friday, while the capacity was set at 200. The shelter in Zuidwolde opened earlier this month. In the evening, the asylum seekers are taken there by bus from Ter Apel, and the next morning they return to East Groningen.
In Ter Apel, the number of overnight stays fluctuates around 2,300 people, three hundred more than agreed. In a letter to the House of Representatives, outgoing State Secretary for Justice and Security Eric van der Burg announced on Thursday that last week people had spent several days on a mattress on the floor in a waiting room. “This is not the intention and shows how acute the shortage of places is,” Van der Burg wrote.
