COA

Around a fifth of the Syrian asylum seekers who are proposed for asylum in the Netherlands through the so-called Turkey-deal, are rejected because of extremist sympathies or because their ideals are not in line with Dutch values, Paul van Musscher, national portfolio holder for foreign affairs and migration crime at the police, said to the Volkskrant.

Two residents of a villa district in Den Helder decided to stop plans for an asylum center housing 16 young asylum seekers on their street by buying the property involved themselves. The villa cost over 500 thousand euros, AD reports.

Amsterdam agreed to open the Netherlands' first separate center for problem causing asylum seekers. The central organization for the reception of asylum seekers, COA, hopes to have this center open and ready for residents by the fall, the Amsterdam mayor and aldermen informed the city council by letter, AD reports.

There is a lively trade in stolen goods at the asylum center in Delfzijl, Dagblad van het Noorden reports based on its own research. Both the police and central agency for asylum reception in the Netherlands COA say there is no evidence of this.

According to th newspaper, asylum seekers from safe countries such as Morocco and Algeria often go out to commit robbery and then sell what they stole. The paper writes that it bought sports shoes for about 15 euros, an iPhone 6s for 60 euros and a bottle of Black Label Whiskey for 5 euros. 

Staff memebers working at asylum shelters feel unsafe due to the "antisocial and criminal behavior" of hopeless asylum seekers from North African countries. The situation has become untenable", the works council wrote in a letter to the management of the COA, AD reprots.

The COA is the central agency for the reception of asylum seekers in the Netherlands. AD has a copy of the letter sent to the management in its possession.

The police received 813 reports of serious incidents at asylum centers or emergency shelters for asylum seekers during the first half of this year. The incidents mostly involved theft, violence and sex crimes, State Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff of Security and Justice wrote to parliament on Monday

In a massive turnaround from the desperate search for asylum centers last year, the COA is now actually closing a number of emergency shelters. The biggest rush of asylum seekers seems to be over for now, COA chairman Gerard Bakker said

From next month almost all asylum centers in the Netherlands will have a counselor to help lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people living their. These counselors will start on August 1st, the central agency for the reception of asylum seekers COA said to the Volkskrant.

Amsterdam residents have mixed feelings about the municipality and COA's plan to turn the Bijlmerbajes prison complex into a temporary asylum center.

Two underage asylum seekers sustained stab wounds in a brawl in an asylum center in Goirle, Noord-Brabant on Thursday night. One of them was taken to hospital for treatment before being taken to the police station. The other was taken into custody immediately, according to the Tilburg police.

Utrecht is the first city in the Netherlands to start integrating asylum seekers into society from their first day in the city. The city wants to put an end to the current practice of asylum applicants being moved about and integration starting late. "When you arrive in Utrecht, you stay in Utrecht", GroenLinks alderman Kees Diepeveen said to the Volkskrant. "This creates peace. For school-age children, being dragged around is very dramatic."