Waalre offers accelerated reception to 164 asylum seekers, including many families with children, Mayor Jan Boelhouwer reports. The group was actually supposed to stay in Waalre from Wednesday, but to relieve the pressure on the registration center in Ter Apel, the people were transferred to two sports halls in Waalre the day before.
“The application center in Ter Apel is overflowing and there is an absolute crisis situation. Because we receive asylum seekers an evening earlier, there is more room in Ter Apel to receive other asylum seekers,” the municipality of Waalre wrote in a statement on Tuesday evening.
“As you will understand, we had to switch immediately, but in times of crisis this is unfortunately unavoidable”, mayor Jan Boelhouwer writes to local residents. “We are doing everything we can to ensure that the evening runs smoothly and we sincerely hope for your understanding.”
Crisis emergency shelters have also been set up in Stadskanaal and Zuidbroek. A spokesperson for the COA expected on Tuesday evening that it would probably be possible to accommodate everyone who reports in Ter Apel for the night from Tuesday to Wednesday.
Yet ten to twenty asylum seekers spend the night in the open air. With blankets and crush barriers, they have set up temporary accommodation at the registration center. Dozens of other refugees spend the night on chairs in the waiting room of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) and on mattresses in a sports hall.
A number of awnings were placed at the application center on Tuesday. This was done to protect people who are waiting in front of the registration center from the sun and other weather conditions, according to the COA spokesperson.
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