Refugees who have been allocated a rental house are coming under pressure from criminal gangs to grow marijuana to earn money, the Volkskrant said on Tuesday.

Three weeks ago the home of a Syrian family in Waalre was destroyed after fire broke out in a marijuana plantation in the attic, the paper said. And lawyers have told the paper that other refugees who have been picked up by the police for growing marijuana are being directly targeted because of their vulnerable position.

The paper quotes the case of one Syrian who says he had been approached while living in a refugee centre about lending him money for his sick mother in Aleppo. Later, when he was allocated a home, he was told the loan needed to be repaid immediately and pressured to putting a plantation in his attic.

Police in eastern parts of Brabant, where much of the Dutch marijuana trade is concentrated, say they come across refugees with marijuana in their attic from time to time. And in Twente, police also report a rising number of foreign growers.

Criminologist Iris Versprille told the paper refugees are a logical choice. ‘They are in a vulnerable position, they often came here with nothing and may well be easily influenced because they don’t know the Netherlands well yet.’