The detention centre for failed asylum seekers in Rotterdam has called a temporary halt to receiving new inmates because of overcrowding, the asylum and migration ministry has confirmed, following a report by the NRC.

The centre houses asylum seekers who refuse to cooperate in their return. Most come from Algeria and Morocco which are considered safe countries.

According to sources cited by the paper, several failed asylum seekers who had committed a crime and should have been detained at the centre have been let go. And last month a section in the centre for failed asylum seekers was cleared to make space for Dutch nationals. No exact figures were quoted.

Prisons in the Netherlands have been struggling with overcrowding and staff shortages and junior justice minister Ingrid Coenradie is considering sending some convicted criminals to foreign jails.

Coenradie, who represents the far-right PVV in the new cabinet, is also looking at what can be done to make the Dutch prison regime “more basic”, the paper said.

Some 2,000 people in the Netherlands are currently out of jail, even though they should be behind bars because there is nowhere for them to go.