An evening in which Nijmegen locals would cook food together with female asylum seekers from the emergency accommodation centre in Heumensoord has been cancelled after the organisers received dozens of threats.

The evening was to have been held in a nearby nursing home, but has now been cancelled because of concerns about protests disturbing the residents,the Gelderlander reports.

Marjolein Faber, who leads the anti-immigration PVV in the senate and sits on the provincial council, raised the discussion first on internet, claiming the safety of home residents would be under threat.

Most of those cooking would be men with other values and who would be able to walk through the nursing home were ‘the majority female staff are often alone at night’, she wrote in an item which was picked up by shock blog Geenstijl.

‘There have been so many horrible reactions and people have even hung up hateful posters, that we could not let the event take place,’ a spokeswoman for the nursing home is quoted as saying by news agency ANP. ‘We do not want our residents to be affected by political and social debate.’

The nursing home’s management board is considering making a formal complaint to the police.