The refugee settlement agency COA is closing 15 emergency locations in the next few weeks because of a falling number of new arrivals.

The organisation is also shedding temporary staff and putting plans for new settlement centres on ice, director Gerard Bakker told the Telegraaf in an interview.

The flow of asylum seekers is constantly shifting and demands a great deal of flexibility to cope with, Bakker said.

More people can also be transferred from temporary centres to permanent ones with better facilities while their cases are being assessed, he said.

The number of new and repeat asylum requests plus the arrival of family members has now fallen to between 500 and 600 a week, according to justice ministry figures.