Ten local authorities have been given extra cash to help them deal with problems  caused mainly by young men from safe third countries who are trying to claim asylum in the Netherlands.

The councils were asked to draw up their own plans for increasing controls, which include the use of street wardens, camera surveillance and community service projects.

‘You cannot deal with problems with rules from The Hague alone,’ junior justice minister Ankie Broekers-Knol said. ‘It takes a lot of working together at a local level, and the use of appropriate measures.’

Broekers-Knol had allocated €1m to the plans and just half the money has been spent on the 10 plans which were submitted by the September 1 deadline.

Ministers have been struggling with the problem of what to do about the relatively small group of pseudo refugees from countries such as Morocco and Algeria, who have virtually no hope of being granted asylum but who are responsible for numerous petty crimes.

Earlier this year refugee settlement agency COA was given the green light to move persistent trouble makers to more restrictive accommodation and the worst offenders can be sent to a special centre in Hoogeveen.

New procedures have also been introduced to assess their claims within four weeks of arrival, but deporting them still remains an issue. Morocco, for example, is reluctant to take back failed asylum seekers and they often disappear into illegality or move to another country and make a second claim.