The mayor of Coevorden has introduced an emergency order in the Drenthe town’s Tuindorp neighbourhood after several nights of unrest over plans to house teenage girl refugees there.
Dozens of protesters have set fires and damaged property in recent days after the council announced that 14 refugee girls aged 15 to 18, all with residence permits, would be provided homes in five terraced houses in the district.
Some locals have said they fear that “traumatised boys” will be housed there too, but mayor Renze Bergsma told RTV Drenthe that is not the case. “We understand there are concerns around asylum and housing, but these girls deserve a safe and pleasant place to live,” he told RTV Drenthe earlier this week.
Protests against the council decision have now turned violent, prompting the mayor to invoke his emergency powers.
Protestors have put up anti-refugee signs around the neighbourhood, smashed windows in the properties, on Sunday night, a group of around 80 demonstrators set fire to a trailer full of wood.
Security cameras installed by the council have also been sabotaged.
Some residents in the town, which has a population of 35,000, say they are worried about their own housing prospects and point to the local housing shortage.
“There are families here where grandparents, parents and grandchildren all live under one roof. Some have been waiting years for a house,” one woman told RTV Drenthe. “We were told Tuindorp was a place where everyone could keep on living. Well, that’s clearly not the case.”
The properties where the girls were lived were previously used as sheltered accommodation for people with physical and mental handicaps.
The emergency order includes a ban on lighting fires and carrying objects which could be used as weapons and police can also ban anyone they suspect of planning to cause trouble from the area.
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