Almere gets tent camp to house 450 refugees as housing crisis worsens
Dutch NewsSoldiers were drafted in to put up marquees as emergency accommodation for 450 refugees in Almere this weekend. All refugee centres in the Netherlands are currently full, including emergency centres and people have been sleeping on chairs and camp beds in Ter Apel, where all new arrivals report to be registered. The shortage of accommodation is due both an increase in refugee numbers and to the nationwide housing crisis, which means there is nowhere for asylum seekers who have been granted refugee status to move to. Some 11,000 out of 30,000 beds in regular refugee centres are currently lived in by people who have residency permits and are waiting to be settled in normal housing. Slow to act Tilburg mayor Theo Weterings told television current affairs show Nieuwsuur on Sunday night that just one of the 12 Dutch provinces had submitted plans for new refugee housing, even though this should have been done last year.