Aid groups abandon efforts around Ter Apel after stabbings

The Red Cross and the Dutch Council for Refugees (Vluchtelingenwerk) have withdrawn their aid workers from the grounds around the Ter Apel asylum reception centre after rising violence, culminating in two stabbings last week, have left the area too dangerous to continue operating in.

Asylum seekers have been gathering and sleeping outside on grass areas around the centre since it ran out of beds in May. The two organisations had spent seven weeks handing out meals, water and blankets to people with nowhere to go during the day. Both said they could no longer guarantee the safety of aid workers or the people they were helping.

Two stabbings on Tuesday and Wednesday, which left two people injured, followed weeks of fights and rising tension in the summer heat.

Red Cross director Harm Goossens told broadcaster NOS it is “an embarrassing situation” that a country of 18 million could not arrange a safe spot for a few dozen people.

Outside the gate
Since May 20, between 40 and 100 asylum seekers have spent their days outside the centre, which is full at its limit of 2,000 residents. At night they are often bussed to emergency shelters and brought back in the morning.

The trouble comes mainly from a small group of men, the aid organisations said – some who were already staying at the centre, others from outside.

Vluchtelingenwerk said most had little chance of being granted asylum in the Netherlands.

Nobody in charge
No agency will take responsibility for the areas outside the centre where the violence is occurring. The refugee settlement agency COA said its responsibilities lie inside the centre gates; Westerwolde council said the people there are COA’s new arrivals.

Jaap Velema, the mayor of Westerwolde, told NRC that the situation had been deteriorating for weeks. “Without pressure, without urgency, nothing happens,” he said.

The first nights without the aid groups brought on more fights as a small group of men repeatedly came to confront asylum seekers from the centre. On Sunday police arrested a 29-year-old man from Budel after an older refugee was reportedly assaulted without provocation.

Calls for shelter
The Red Cross wants councils to open an emergency shelter for more than 100 people. A temporary night shelter in Nieuwe Pekela, where 53 people slept on Friday, will stay open until October 1, and Westerwolde said 150 extra emergency places were arranged over the weekend.

Asylum minister Bart van den Brink said he understood “the powerlessness” the aid workers felt and again urged councils to take their share of asylum seekers. His ministry is due to set out its approach to disruptive asylum seekers on Monday. A third aid organisation, MiGreat, is staying on the grounds outside the centre to help people.