WITH PHOTOSSanitary is often dirty, there is hardly any privacy in large dormitories and the food is sometimes spoiled. A year after the court ordered the government to improve the situation in the emergency shelter for asylum seekers, conditions are still just as harrowing, if not worsened, says the Council for Refugees in a new report.
A year ago, the Council for Refugees went to court because, according to the organization, the government offers ‘no humane living conditions’ at emergency shelters and crisis shelter locations. Several judges agreed with the Council for Refugees: the reception did not meet the legal standards. Those judges urged the government to make an effort to improve the situation.
But, says the Council for Refugees, in many places the conditions are still just as harrowing, if not worse. ‘What used to be crisis care has become a new reality,’ the organization writes in its report. The Council for Refugees visited 22 emergency locations for this purpose.
Sleeping rooms in the emergency shelter in Dordrecht. © Council for Refugees
Privacy
Most complaints are about a lack of privacy in the massive locations, dirty sanitary facilities and bad food. But also about the lack of good shelter for vulnerable people. ‘A poignant case is a man with cancer who underwent chemotherapy while staying at a large emergency shelter in an event hall.’ According to fellow residents, the man was weakened by the chemo and had to wear a diaper because the distance to the toilet was too far. An ambulance also had to come several times because he became unwell.
Hundreds of people often stay in such event halls, sometimes in bunk beds with only a curtain in front. The intention is that people stay in an emergency shelter for as short a time as possible, in reality this sometimes takes many months.
Bed cities in the emergency shelter in Goes. © Council for Refugees
The asylum seekers that the Council for Refugees spoke to often spoke of a great lack of privacy. Hundreds of people stay in the reception halls, so it is never quiet. There is also no place to retreat. If there are separate sleeping units, they usually have walls, but no ceiling. The fluorescent tubes are switched on or off centrally. In smaller reception locations there is sometimes no daylight or no windows that can be opened for fresh air.
The sanitary facilities at large reception locations are also a problem: they are often dirty or broken. In a large emergency shelter in Assen, the researchers counted forty toilets and sixteen showers for five hundred men. “If you only have a few showers with a lot of people, it can’t stay clean. There only needs to be one rotten apple among the residents that doesn’t cooperate in keeping everything clean,” reports a resident. Asylum seekers who are received on boats or in hotels are satisfied: “Everything works well and is clean.”
Dirty sanitary facilities in the large emergency shelter in Assen. © Council for Refugees
According to the Council for Refugees and residents, the condition of the shelter is deteriorating the mental health of the asylum seekers. “There are people who just break because they can’t take it anymore. They suddenly start screaming or crying outside,” reports a Syrian from the large shelter in Assen.
The Council for Refugees concludes that the reception crisis has ‘become invisible’. ‘What happened in front of the gates of Ter Apel last year is now taking place within the walls of the emergency shelter.’ According to the organization, the Netherlands should, if necessary, provide sustainable and humane reception through ‘state emergency law’. ‘In small locations with sufficient separate areas with a lockable door and a ceiling, windows that can be opened and fixed sanitary facilities.’
Milo Schoenmaker, COA’s chairman of the board, said in an interview in this newspaper earlier this week that ‘the majority of emergency reception locations are okay’. “But there are also locations that are below standard, especially in event halls. Our teams there are doing their utmost, but such halls are meant for a few weeks to a month, but not as long as now. We will close as soon as possible.”
A broken emergency shower in the emergency shelter in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, © VluchtelingenWerk
‘The shelter in the gym, that was really the worst’
Zafer Yildirim reported fourteen months ago as a political refugee from Turkey in the Netherlands. His asylum procedure is still ongoing, he has recently stayed at five different locations. “The emergency shelter in a small sports hall in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht was by far the worst,” he says. He stayed there for a month with thirty men, everyone had a place in a bunk bed. Privacy was only there if you closed the curtain in front of your bed. ,,The food was distributed a meter next to the toilets. We only had disposable plastic cutlery, which we always had to reuse.” They were not allowed to leave the location (a crisis emergency shelter, managed by the municipality) between 11 p.m. and the next morning. “We are not criminals, are we? That location really went against all respect for human dignity. I did not expect that from a developed country like the Netherlands,” says Yildirim, trained as a lawyer. The Turk protested to anyone he considered responsible. The shelter in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht eventually closed for several reasons. “I am proud to have contributed to that.” Yildirim is now staying on a shelter ship in Stellendam. “That is a lot better, at least we have our own sanitary facilities.”
EMERGENCY SHELTER AND CRISIS EMERGENCY SHELTER
The Council for Refugees visited 22 emergency reception locations (managed by the COA) and crisis emergency reception locations (managed by municipalities). There are a total of 128 emergency shelter locations in the Netherlands and several dozen crisis emergency shelters. There are now more than 25,000 asylum seekers. The emergency shelter was set up a year and a half ago because the regular asylum seekers’ centers (AZCs) are full and there were not enough municipalities that wanted a new, long-term location on their territory. There are now 81 regular azcs, where about 30,000 asylum seekers are waiting for a decision in their asylum procedure.
Lunch in crisis shelter in Stein, Limburg. © Council for Refugees
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2023-09-06 16:15:01
#Asylum #reception #report #People #break #anymore
