Rotterdam council housing executive Hamit Karakus has urged the government to take action to combat the problems being caused by the influx of central and eastern Europeans into the country.

Karakus said that new immigrants were moving into problem areas and living in overcrowded conditions in Rotterdam, often in houses owned by unscrupulous landlords.
In addition, the government had sharply underestimated the number of people who would move to the Netherlands from eastern Europe, news agency ANP reported Karakus as saying.