Almost all the Netherlands’ 342 local authorities are making plans to house asylum seekers, in line with legislation ensuring a fair spread of refugees nationwide, RTL reported on Wednesday.

The government is planning to withdraw the legislation, which was voted through in the last months of the previous administration.

Earlier research by RTL showed that by the beginning of this year, almost half (47%) of Dutch councils had provided no accommodation at all for refugees for the past 10 years.

Now 84% are actively working to set up a centre. In Venlo, for example, home town of Geert Wilders, leader of the far-right coalition party PVV, a former convent is being converted into a home for 600 refugees and is due to open next May.

“We consider it important to contribute to the provision of enough humane places for refugees and to ensure a fair spread across the country,” mayor Antoin Scholten told RTL.

Just a handful of council areas, such as Zandvoort, have refused to cooperate with the legislation because of the cabinet’s plans to withdraw it.

All the plans should be delivered to asylum minister Marjolein Faber by the end of October, and she does have the power to take action if a council fails to do so.

However, Faber has made it clear she plans to press ahead with cancelling the legislation as soon as possible, even though most councils want to keep it.

Children

On Tuesday it emerged that the number of refugee children living in emergency centres such as sports halls rather than formal accommodation has more than doubled to 5,566 over the past year.