Dutch soldiers living in hotels because barracks are unlivable: report

By Janene Pieters on October 26, 2018 - 12:30
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Dutch soldier in a training exercise (Picture: Wikimedia Commons/Gertrud Zach). (Dutch soldier in a training exercise (Picture: Wikimedia Commons/Gertrud Zach))

Hundreds of Dutch soldiers will be living in hotels around Zeist in the coming months because the conditions of the sleeping barracks at their home base, Huis ter Heide, are so bad that they can no longer be used, newspaper AD reports.

Some 200 soldiers had to pack their bags and leave Huis ter Heide this week. The rooms are very outdated, the hygiene is below par and in some cases the soldiers shared lodgings with vermin, according to the newspaper. The Ministry of Defense therefore decided to move the soldiers out of the barracks, because it is irresponsible to keep living there.

The soldiers were moved into hotels, because there is no room in other Defense terrains in the area. The hotels will be their lodgings for at least a few months.

How the barracks became so neglected is not clear. 

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