Water canons and roadblocks deployed as asylum riots continue

Police arrested four men and used a water cannon to disperse protestors as violent demonstrations against the arrival of asylum seekers in Loosdrecht continued on Wednesday evening.

Some 50 people turned up for the demonstration, which took place in a designated area near the accommodation. Initially peaceful, it was broken up when police were pelted with high-powered fireworks.

The situation was “quite turbulent” but nothing compared to Tuesday’s arson and aggression against emergency services, a police spokesman told broadcaster NOS.

Loosdrecht council had not announced the arrival of the first refugees in advance because of weeks of unrest over the plan, which will accommodate up to 70 single male asylum seekers for six months in an empty section of the council building. The original target of 110 was cut to 70 last month after earlier protests.

Wijdemeren local council had issued several measures to prevent further rioting, including checks on cars coming into Loosdrecht and a ban on face coverings.

The location of the asylum accommodation has been declared a no-go area during evenings and nights until Saturday but that did not prevent some of the protesters from putting up banners at the site.

Hours before the riots on Tuesday, asylum minister Bart van den Brink told MPs that the Dutch security service AIVD had begun investigating the recent wave of anti-asylum protests.

The agency is examining “whether there is organised activity” behind the rallies and “what patterns there are and what lies behind them”, he said in parliament. He declined to say whether foreign interference is part of the scope, according to broadcaster NOS.