In Almere and Gorinchem, five hundred extra reception places for asylum seekers will be added this week. That is what outgoing State Secretary Ankie Broekers-Knol (Migration and Asylum, VVD) said on Wednesday after a visit to the overcrowded asylum seekers center in Ter Apel in Groningen. Extra reception places have also been promised in Utrecht.
In the coming days Almere will make way for about two hundred extra asylum seekers in pavilions near the asylum seekers center, Gorinchem will realize three hundred temporary places in an empty office. The Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) has warned several times that the reception in Ter Apel, where the largest IND application center is located, is no longer responsible. The night shelter currently houses 750 asylum seekers, while the location has been built for a maximum of 275 people.
Although the five hundred extra places will not solve the major reception problem, according to Broekers-Knol, it will provide ‘lighting’. More places will be made available nationwide from 1 November.
Utrecht
For example, from mid-November there will be an emergency shelter for five hundred asylum seekers. Mayor Sharon Dijksma and the responsible alderman wrote this in a letter to Broekers-Knol on Wednesday. We are currently working hard on preparing a former Holland Casino building. The emergency shelter will be made available for “a few months”, according to a spokesperson for Dijksma. Utrecht calls on other municipalities in the region to follow the Utrecht example.
In addition, outgoing minister Ferd Grapperhaus (Justice and Security, CDA) called on the Security Council earlier this week to cooperate in creating eight hundred reception places for asylum seekers. As a result of these consultations, ten municipalities have offered to realize additional capacity. We will start using these shelters as soon as possible, if possible, according to a spokesperson for the COA. The municipalities of Emmen, Groningen, Leeuwarden, Alkmaar, Overloon and Tilburg, among others, had already promised to create temporary shelters.
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