azc Veenhuizen (Oude Asserstraat)
The Veenhuizen reception centre occupies the former Groot Bankenbosch penitentiary in the historic prison village, reopened to house asylum seekers when the Ter Apel registration centre was overwhelmed. In August 2015 the municipality of Noordenveld agreed to expand the site from 400 to 600 beds to relieve pressure on Ter Apel, at a time when roughly 1,200 asylum seekers were arriving in the Netherlands each week. The accommodation has since been scaled back, but it remains one of the more unusual reception sites given its prison heritage.
Occupancy
40
people (Aug 2025)
Per night
€80
per person (benchmark)
Annual
€1.2m
estimated
Background
The site sits at Oude Asserstraat, Veenhuizen. It is run by the COA (Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers), the Dutch government’s asylum-reception agency. For what the azc / noodopvang categories mean and how Dutch reception spending breaks down, open the cost panel on the interactive map with the Netherlands selected in Settings.
In the news
Aug 2015
Asylum accommodation in Veenhuizen prison expanded
Accommodation in the former Groot Bankenbosch penitentiary was enlarged from 400 to 600 beds after consultation with council leaders and residents, to ease the influx at Ter Apel.
Binnenlands Bestuur · source
Compiled from public Dutch news reports (each item links to its source). Where a municipality runs more than one reception location, attribution to this specific address reflects the cited report and may be approximate — always check the linked source.
Timeline
Aug 2015
Capacity raised from 400 to 600 beds
Municipality of Noordenveld agreed to expand asylum accommodation in the former Groot Bankenbosch prison to relieve Ter Apel.
Cost
Dutch asylum reception is funded by central government through the COA. At an illustrative benchmark of about €80 per person per night for a regular centre, the 40 people recorded here on 13 August 2025 imply roughly €1.2m per year. This is an order-of-magnitude figure for context only, not a site-specific invoice — emergency reception typically runs around three times the cost of a regular centre.
Sources
COA / Rijksoverheid (Kamerstuk, 5 Sep 2025) · 2025-08-13. View source
Occupancy is the COA register snapshot of 13 August 2025 and may have changed since. Coordinates were geocoded from the published street address via the official PDOK Locatieserver.