The government “acted improperly and inappropriately” by taking tents and ponchos from asylum seekers who had to sleep in the grass in front of the registration center in Ter Apel in the summer of 2022. At the time, government authorities threatened to arrest citizens who came to the aid of asylum seekers. This is “particularly unfortunate,” concludes Reinier van Zutphen, the National Ombudsman, in the report published on Thursday. Forbidden to provide assistance?about tackling the crisis situation in the summer of 2022.
Between August and October 2022, more people registered at the registration center of the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) in Ter Apel, Groningen, than there was room. Hundreds of asylum seekers had to wait outside on a lawn, even at night. The government “had no control over the situation” and so local residents and other citizens “felt compelled to provide help and protection,” the ombudsman wrote. In addition to tents and tea, they also handed out rain ponchos and garbage bags. BOAs and agents then took those items from the asylum seekers and warned those distributing them of prosecution.
The government can be expected to “think along and work with citizens on a solution”, instead of punishing citizens who come to the rescue, says Van Zutphen. Too much attention was paid to safety and public order and not enough to the dire humanitarian situation in which the waiting asylum seekers found themselves every day. Officials from the municipality of Westerwolde, which includes Ter Apel, told the ombudsman that they felt let down by other authorities.
Today there is also a chance that asylum seekers in Ter Apel will have to sleep outside again now that “a new low point in asylum reception is emerging,” the ombudsman warns. During the night from Tuesday to Wednesday, three hundred more asylum seekers slept in Ter Apel than the maximum permitted number of two thousand.
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