The Dutch government has been ordered by judges to take immediate action to bring the country’s main refugee reception centre “up to international standards” after prime minister, Mark Rutte, admitted the “primitive” conditions there made him “ashamed”.
In a damning and highly embarrassing judgment, a court in The Hague said all refugees had a right to “a roof over their heads” comprising “at least four square metres of space, a door that can be locked and a window that can be opened”, as well as food, drinkable water and clean sanitation.
Instead, inspectors had found “chronic overcrowding”, with families “huddled together” against the cold, frequently hundreds of them sleeping outside on grass, “filthy” toilets, no showers, and inadequate or sometimes no medical care”.
The court granted the refugee NGO, Vluchtelingenwerk, an injunction obliging the government to comply, as a matter of urgency, with EU guidelines on the provision of emergency aid to refugees and asylum seekers, and with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.
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The centre at Ter Appel, in the north of the country, has had serious overcrowding problems all summer, with hundreds of refugees forced to sleep outdoors and apparently little or no capacity to improve its operation.
Despite repeated warnings about conditions, it was the death of a three-month-old baby last month that made the centre notorious.
First to criticise Ter Appel was the Dutch Red Cross which early on complained of “unacceptable levels of hygiene and personal safety”.
Next was the children’s ombudsman, Margrite Kalverboer, who said she’d found 113 unaccompanied minors, some from war zones, living at the centre with no educational facilities and no physical activities, facing “mental neglect and trauma”.
She said sometimes staff at the centre didn’t wake these children up because there was nothing for them to do. “They have no help, nothing.”
At the start of this month the number of unaccompanied minors had increased to around 300.
The most biting criticism came from the NGO, Medecins San Frontieres, whose co-ordinator, Monique Nagelkerke, described the centre as “dismal” and “primitive” and said it was the first time in 50 years that it had been forced to launch an emergency response in “a wealthy EU country”.
One local mayor who visited Ter Apel to investigate the negative publicity for himself reported: “Children are playing in the rubbish. There are cleaner toilet facilities at festivals. This is the Netherlands’ own Lampedusa.”
In an effort to reduce pressure on Ter Appel, two large cruise ships have been hired by the government. The MS Galaxy arrived in Amsterdam during the week and can accommodate at least 1,000. The MS Silja Europa docked in IJmuiden. They will have educational and day care facilities.
