There is a crisis every day at COA, says chairman Milo Schoenmaker in the staff canteen on the grounds of the asylum seeker center in Ter Apel. A court ruling, such as the one in Groningen in January, does not change that. The COA convened a press conference on Wednesday afternoon to explain whether it will adhere to the court ruling from Thursday and house fewer than 2,000 people in the asylum seeker center in Ter Apel.
“Most likely” that will work, says Schoenmaker. It depends on how many asylum seekers arrive on Wednesday evening. “We have no influence on that. It is very annoying that we are so cramped in Ter Apel,” says Schoenmaker.
On Wednesday, 2,066 people were still staying in the registration center. If there are fewer than 2,000 asylum seekers on Thursday, COA will comply with the judge's ruling, which gave the organization four weeks in January to adhere to the maximum agreed in 2010 with the municipality of Westerwolde. Every day that too many people stay in the asylum seeker center, the COA must pay the municipality a penalty of 15,000 euros.
On Monday, the COA said that it was not possible to find additional shelter and that it would not be possible to reduce the number of asylum seekers in Ter Apel. On Tuesday the organization came up with a temporary solution. The emergency shelter in Biddinghuizen will remain open until mid-March. The COA had already started moving people from Biddinghuizen, because the site must be empty in the spring. Now the COA is housing asylum seekers again, so that fewer people stay in Ter Apel. These are asylum seekers who are registered and identified in Ter Apel. The first left on Wednesday. This allows COA to adhere to the agreement with the municipality on Thursday.
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That's Thursday. But it is uncertain whether it will work on Friday or next week. COA “puzzles” every day to arrange shelters, says Schoenmaker. He mentions an accumulation of problems. For example, the influx of asylum seekers in Ter Apel is currently about thirty percent higher than expected. The call that State Secretary Eric van der Burg (Asylum, VVD) made two weeks ago to provinces and municipalities to arrange 5,500 additional shelter places within three to five weeks has not yet led to any additional places. “We need those places, otherwise we will continue to have problems,” says Schoenmaker.
The dispersal law, which was adopted in January and came into effect in February, also does not yet provide any relief. “Many municipalities have contacted us regarding the dispersal law, but we have not yet received any offers,” says Schoenmaker. The COA itself continues to look for places to receive asylum seekers outside Ter Apel, such as in hotels or on ships. It also tries to keep locations that are closing soon open longer. “We are doing everything we can to get out of this,” says Schoenmaker.
It has always been the goal of the COA to adhere to the agreement with the municipality of Westerwolde, says Schoenmaker. “That has not been possible since November. We were then struggling to get people into beds at all. We had to do a lot for that. But we always try to move people from Ter Apel as soon as a bed is available in the country. Every day we feel how high the pressure is.”
According to the chairman, his organization cannot do well quickly. “If we don't make it, the municipality and local residents say that even a court ruling won't help. If we do manage, they could say: now it is suddenly possible.”
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