The government has set aside an extra €500m to help approved refugees integrate into the Netherlands.

The money will go to local authorities to fund language lessons, run employment projects and to help schools, the cabinet has agreed. Most of the money – €353m – comes from the foreign ministry and aid budgets.

‘We have to learn from the past. We have a shared interest and that is that integration is successful,’ home affairs minister Lodewijk Asscher said.