Three arrested as anti-asylum protest turned unruly in Schiedam
Dutch police intervened in two separate incidents linked to anti-asylum sentiments on Saturday — one involving unrest at a protest in Schiedam and another in Apeldoorn, where small fires and hostile banners were discovered despite no local asylum center plans.
In Schiedam, tensions escalated during a demonstration against the possible establishment of an asylum seekers’ center. Police arrested three people for insulting behavior, a spokesperson confirmed. A reporter from the ANP news agency witnessed officers escorting the detainees into a police van.
Several hundred demonstrators gathered from early afternoon to protest the municipality’s proposal to house 327 asylum seekers in the former office building De Torendijk on the ’s-Gravelandseweg. Among them would be 52 unaccompanied minors, according to the plan. Protesters carried banners reading “Vol = vol, nee = nee” (“Full is full, no means no”) and “AZC weg ermee” (“Get rid of the asylum center”), marching through the city and passing a group of counterdemonstrators. Those counterprotesters chanted slogans including “Refugees welcome, Nazis not.”
A heavy police presence was deployed to keep both sides apart and ensure the demonstration remained orderly. The municipality of Schiedam is still considering whether the asylum center will go ahead.
Meanwhile, in Apeldoorn’s De Maten neighborhood, police launched an investigation after fires were deliberately set and multiple anti-AZC banners appeared late Saturday night—despite there being no official plans for an asylum facility in the area, De Stentor reports.
Firefighters were alerted around 10:45 p.m. to a burning waste container at the intersection of Rademakersdonk and Koperslagersdonk. A short distance away, a pile of paper was also found on fire. Both blazes were quickly extinguished.
Officers later found several banners nearby, including one displaying the Dutch flag’s colors and another bearing what police described as an “extremely offensive message” opposing the arrival of an asylum center.
All materials, including the banners, were seized for forensic examination. Police said they do not rule out arson or intentional efforts to incite unrest.
