Reception not around in Ter Apel again, Red Cross intervenes | NOW

The Red Cross came to Ter Apel on its own initiative on Wednesday evening to set up tents for two hundred refugees. The shelter has been bulging for ages, so that on Tuesday evening people were lying in the grass for lack of a bed. “We have reached an absolute low point,” says director Marieke van Schaik.

Earlier this evening, State Secretary Eric Van der Burg (Asylum) had asked the Groningen Security Region for crisis emergency shelter for the reception of asylum seekers in Ter Apel. Yet it remains uncertain whether there is a place to sleep for everyone tonight. Red Cross director Van Schaik calls the situation in Ter Apel “below any humanitarian level and downright unacceptable”.

Van Schaik tells NU.nl that she had “already seen” this situation coming. “Last autumn, the Red Cross already sounded the alarm about refugee reception,” says Van Schaik. The initiative to set up emergency shelters ourselves is supported by the Council for Refugees and UNICEF.

A spokesperson for the Groningen Security Region says that the Groningen municipalities are meeting the State Secretary’s request. According to him, Van der Burg has asked for two hundred places for Wednesday evening. “We can respond to that. We have the COA [Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers, red.] made an offer to realize the spots in a neighboring region tonight.”

According to the COA, this actually concerns a hundred places that the security region is setting up for the night. Asylum seekers must be in Heerenveen for this crisis emergency shelter, says a spokesperson. She’s not sure if everyone has a bed tonight. “Most likely all asylum seekers have shelter.”

Safety region and COA also leave transport to the Red Cross

The transport of asylum seekers is also chaotic and will be received by the Red Cross on Wednesday evening. The aid organization saw that both shelter and transport had not been adequately addressed before.

“Normally we arrange the buses,” says the spokesperson for the COA. “Last night we tried to transport people, but we were no longer able to organize bus transport.”

Hence the offer of the Red Cross to transport the refugees themselves on Wednesday evening. “We make grateful use of that,” according to the COA. The spokesperson for the Security Region says that the offer from the Red Cross was there, “so we will not arrange that”.

The COA spokesperson does not yet know what Thursday will look like. “First we have to make sure that the shelter will be completed tonight and then we will look further tomorrow,” she says. Van der Burg said on Wednesday that he expected the serious shortage of places in Ter Apel to continue for almost a week.

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