Dutch refugee council sues state over "inhumane" asylum centres

Refugees wait outdoors on the damp ground at the main reception centre for asylum seekers, in Ter Apel, Netherlands August 17, 2022. More than a hundred people have spent nights outdoors, sleeping on the roadside with little or no access to shelter or food. REUTERS/Piroschka van de Wouw

TER APEL, Netherlands (Reuters) - Teenager Munasar Muhidin says he fled Somalia in 2020 after Islamist militants killed most of his family and that his brother died trying to get to Europe. He hoped he had finally found a place of refuge in the Netherlands.

But when he reached the country's main reception centre for asylum seekers in the northern town of Ter Apel he found hundreds ahead of him in the queue and was forced to camp by the roadside, where he said fights broke out and thunderstorms soaked his bedding.