In total 23 extremist Muslim religious leaders have been stopped from coming to the Netherlands since last March, the Telegraaf says on Tuesday.

Of them, eight were banned outright and 15 had their invitations withdrawn following talks with event organisers, the paper says.

The Dutch counter terrorism body NCTV maintains an alert list of extremists who are required to have a visa to enter the Netherlands.

More important than the outright bans is the fact that 15 speakers did not take to the stage ‘after talks between local government officials and the organisations’, a spokesman told the paper.