A housing corporation in the eastern town of Hoogeveen has been forced to find a new home for a Dutch family after the local Moluccan population covered the house with graffiti saying they were not welcome.

Housing corporation Domesta says it offered the home to a non-Moluccan family because no Moluccans wanted it, despite long-standing agreements that the neighbourhood retain its Moluccan character.

Now angry locals have sprayed the property with texts stating ‘Moluccans only, Moluccan neighbourhood’.

The local Moluccan community says there were Moluccans who were interested in the property and they had warned the housing association what would happen if outsiders were moved in.

Hoogeveen’s acting mayor Anno Wietze Hiemstra told local media he understood the Moluccan position. ‘Our standpoint is that this is a Moluccan neighbourhood and must stay Moluccan,’ broadcaster Nos quotes him as saying.

The housing corporation confirmed to local broadcaster RTV Drenthe the official agreement is that the houses be offered to Moluccan families. It will now find the Dutch family another home and made a formal police complaint about the vandalism.

Specially built

The first Moluccans moved to the neighbourhood in 1962, which was specially built for them at the time by the city council.

The Moluccans were brought to the the Netherlands in the wake of the Indonesian independence wars, after the Netherlands could not guarantee them the free state they had promised in return for military support.

Many were housed in camps when they first arrived, including the former Westerbork Nazi transit camp.