Waiting in hell: A refugee camp crisis in the Netherlands has led to a wave of suicides

The system is unable to cope with major influxes of refugees, and when such instances occur, the reception center in Ter Apel receives far more people than it can accommodate. When that happens, many asylum seekers are placed in temporary camps, where they often remain well past the legal time limit before finally being transferred to permanent facilities. These temporary centers are frequently nothing more than sports gymnasiums lined with beds, offering no privacy or proper amenities.

In 2022, Ukrainian refugees at a camp in the municipality of Ede complained about harsh conditions. They were housed in cramped military barracks without kitchens. While there, they were denied medical care, and their children were offered school lessons only twice a week instead of five. A nearby active military base meant they were regularly forced to hear gunfire.

Between 2019 and 2023, 26 people died by suicide in Dutch refugee camps. According to LGBT Asylum Support, five of them were LGBTQ people. Among those who took their own lives in recent years were Moldovan citizen Katya Mikhailova, and Russian nationals Hina Zakharova, Antonina Babchenko, Mikhail Zubchenko, and Alisa Serova. Queer refugees, in particular, fear deportation and often give up without appealing an initial denial of asylum.

The problems in the camps are symptomatic of a broader crisis that right-wing politicians in the Netherlands call a “migration crisis,” and which the progressive opposition characterizes as a “reception crisis.” The right blames global trends and the country’s lack of border strictness; their opponents point instead to administrative failures and the government’s inability to make effective use of available resources.