The trial to confine nuisance-causing asylum seekers to a limited area around the asylum seekers center in Ter Apel, Netherlands, is set to proceed starting June 1st, according to a letter from Minister Faber to the House of Representatives. Despite concerns about police capacity and potential security risks, the minister asserts that local authorities are responsible for enforcement.

The municipality of Ter Apel has expressed concerns about insufficient police capacity to carry out the trial. A spokesperson for the municipality stated that the Ministry of Asylum and Migration never responded to their concerns, and that consultations, which would normally occur, did not take place.

Other organizations involved in the trial’s implementation, including the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND), were also reportedly unsettled when Minister Faber announced that “everything was in order” to start the trial.

Minister Faber stated that consultations with the municipality will take place on June 6, after the trial has already formally started. The minister’s letter to Parliament indicates that the trial’s commencement might not immediately cause major problems, as long as few nuisance-causing asylum seekers are addressed initially.

The new approach involves restricting asylum seekers in an accelerated procedure, who have a low chance of obtaining a residence permit and cause a nuisance, to a process availability location (PBL) and a zone around the asylum seekers center in Ter Apel. These individuals will be under stricter supervision and must adhere to a compulsory day and evening program.

A previous similar experiment by the prior cabinet was halted by the court in March of last year because the restriction of freedom was deemed insufficiently motivated and not individually tested.

Faber is implementing an “escalation model” to address these concerns. Asylum seekers who cause problems will initially be placed in a light regime. If that proves ineffective, they will be transferred to a strengthened supervision location (VTL) before ultimately being placed in the PBL. The intention is to implement this approach elsewhere in the Netherlands in the coming months.