The number of ‘incidents’ at refugee centres in the Netherlands has more than doubled from 8,000 in 2015 to 17,000 last year, according to justice ministry figures, the NRC reported on Wednesday.

The incidents range from fights and verbal attacks to arson, the NRC said. In particular, breaking the house rules – such as smoking in private rooms – and verbal assault have increased.

There are two main reasons for the rise: more people with no hope of winning refugee status are living in the centres and staff are quicker to report incidents, sources told the paper.

A large proportion of the problems centre on young men from Algeria, Morocco and Libya, some of whom have been involved in up to 50 separate incidents, sources said.

Officials have few options to deal with persistent trouble makers apart from withholding their allowances and moving them to other locations.

The refugee settlement agency COA last year urged the government to put no-hopers in separate centres and officials are now looking into the options, the paper said.