Hundreds of asylum seekers camped outside a reception center in Ter Apel, northern Holland, have been moved to other places across the country, officials said today.
The Red Cross and the Dutch branch of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) had warned of an impending humanitarian emergency at the reception center in Ter Appel, a village near the city of Groningen, outside of which more than 700 people slept, often for nearly three weeks, hoping to get housing while their case was being processed.
“Hundreds of people were bussed late yesterday to other reception sites in the country,” said Leon Veld, a spokesman for the Dutch Refugee Agency (COA).
“We hope that the situation will normalize little by little,” he explained to AFP.
According to Saturday’s Dutch papers, however, dozens of people remain at the scene, mostly out of fear of losing their place in the queue.
In this country’s main reception centre, AFP correspondents had yesterday seen hundreds of asylum seekers sitting on the ground under makeshift tents, near a row of dirty chemical toilets and without other equipment.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte admitted there had been “shameful scenes in the centre” and that mistakes had been made, promising a “structural solution” to the problem.
Last night, the Dutch government announced measures to deal with this crisis, which is attributed to the lack of staff at the COA and the lack of accommodation in the Netherlands. Around 16,000 people whose asylum claim has been approved are therefore without accommodation and are forced to remain in reception centres.
The country should not, for example, accept the arrival of the families of those who have secured asylum unless it has found accommodation for them.
The Dutch government has also promised to open more reception facilities — in a facility that could be made available to the military, a 200-bed ship in Arnhem and Delft University of Technology accommodation.
Source: AMPE
Source: Capital
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