THE HAGUE – Nearly 40 percent of the beds in Dutch refugee centers and emergency shelters are empty, broadcaster RTL news reported this weekend. The number of new asylum seekers arriving in the country has more than halved compared to a year ago, leaving thousands of places that were set up to cope with the surge in numbers empty. Last month, 2,260 refugees came to the Netherlands, compared with 4,789 in July 2015. The refugee settlement agency COA currently has places for 53,676 refugees, but just 32,900 are taken. That means almost 20,000 beds, or 37% of the total, are empty.
Many empty beds in Dutch refugee centers
