The city of Groningen is defying government policy and setting up a new emergency shelter for failed asylum seekers who have no where else to go, broadcaster NOS said on Wednesday.

The cabinet wants local authorities to stop offering people who have been evicted from official refugee centres ‘bed, bath and bread’ provisions.

In Groningen, failed asylum seekers are currently staying in a converted boat while the council builds a new centre to take 176 people.

‘These people are here whether we like it or not and we don’t want them to sleep under bridges,’ alderman Ton Schroor told broadcaster NOS. ‘Groningen has been a city of charity since the Middle Ages and we will always remain so.’

The government stopped funding local councils to take care of refugees who have been told to leave the country last year. It says providing any accommodation, no matter how basic, will only encourage more to stay.

In 2015, the Council of State ruled that ministers can refuse to provide bed and board for people living in the Netherlands without residency papers if they don’t cooperate with efforts to deport them.

Bigger cities

A foundation set up to monitor the position of undocumented refugees says more than 2,000 people are currently living in ‘bed and board’ accommodation in several dozen locations.

Most are in the big cities and run by local councils, but church groups and private individuals also offer places.