Junior justice minister Klaas Dijkhoff said on Friday that it is ‘quite normal’ for people to be upset when they hear an asylum seekers centre is to open in their neighbourhood.

He was reacting to the cancellation on Thursday evening of a council meeting in Purmerend, north of Amsterdam, where police had to be called to restore order when locals protested about the decision to set up a refugee centre.

Dijkhoff compared the situation with the opening of a supermarket in an empty building round the corner. ‘You also think “what is going on? Will there be more traffic in my street?”‘

An asylum seekers centre means a few hundred people you do not know from countries you may also not know, the minister told Dutch media. ‘And you ask yourself what will be the result.’

However, in practice, things usually work out well, according to Dijkhoff.