The national ombudsman has slammed the way locals who tried to help asylum seekers forced to sleep in the open air at the Ter Apel reception centre two years ago were threatened with arrest.

Hundreds of people were left sleeping outside in the summer of 2022 because the reception centre had no beds. Access to water, toilets and showers was also extremely limited.

Help from locals and refugee organisations, who donated food and tents, was also rejected by officials and tents and other camping gear were removed by police because of a perceived risk to public order.

“You would expect a government to think and work with its citizens to find a solution, rather than threaten to punish those who help,” ombudsman Reinier van Zutphen said.

Roos Ykema, director of refugee aid group MiGreat has welcomed the report. “We were standing with them in the rain and did not know how they could stay dry,” she told Radio 1 news.

Ykema was told in a formal letter she risked a three month jail term if she continued to help people by handing out tents, a move which led the agency to complain to the ombudsman.

“Everyone I speak to wants no repeat of the situation in Ter Apel two years ago,” Van Zutphen said. “But that can only happen if all the local authorities in the Netherlands work together and share the responsibility for providing accommodation for refugees,” he said.

Officials have warned that the situation could arise again because the reception centre is still too full.

Refugee settlement agency COA was fined several times this year for providing beds for more than the 2,000 the Ter Apel location has been licenced to house.