The number of people who have offered their services as volunteers went up steeply in the days following the royal honours row, the largest Dutch volunteer platform NLvoorelkaar has told Nu.nl.

The number of new volunteers rose to 141, three times as many as on the same days last month and twice as many as the normal average, NLvoorelkaar spokeswoman Anne van Roosmalen said.

Weekends are always busier, Van Roosmalen said, and the brighter weather also helps. But even when taking those factors into account, the rise is clear.

Last week,far right PVV asylum minister Marjolein Faber refused to sign off the royal honours for five volunteers who worked for the COA refugee housing organisation because she deemed it “contrary to her policy”.

“We think it is fair to say that the media attention around the row has fired up people into making a statement by offering to volunteer,”  Van Roosmalen said.

Other volunteer platforms, including Het begint met Taal (it starts with the language) which helps refugees learn Dutch, said their webpages have shown increased traffic and that more people have been requesting information.

COA, which was at the heart of the row, has not seen an increase in volunteers but that may be a matter of time, a spokesman told the news platform. “It always takes a couple of days before people who register as volunteers start work for organisations like COA,” he said.