Home affairs minister Judith Uitermark said she was “appalled” at the violent protest against a refugee centre in Uden in Brabant earlier this week.

The local authority was holding an information evening about plans to house 750 asylum seekers at three locations in the municipality when around 300 protestors gathered outside. At around 9 pm, some began throwing stones, bottles and fireworks at the building, while others paraded with lit torches.

Five people were arrested, one of whom remains in custody.

The protest is the latest in a wave of demonstrations against local authority plans to open refugee housing, particularly in Noord-Brabant.

The NSC minister said the images of the rioting were ”horrendous”. “That anger. The fact that a demonstration goes off the rails like that and that the mayor had to use emergency powers,” she told news agency ANP.

The Dutch local authorities organisation VNG has linked the protests to government policy. Asylum minister Marjolein Faber is in the process of scrapping the spreidingswet (the law to distribute refugees to centres across the country), creating the impression that there is no longer any need for accommodation for asylum seekers, the VNG said.

Uitermarkt said she could see that this was a factor, but not the main cause of the incidents.

“I don’t think [ the anger] can be linked directly to what we are doing or not doing in The Hague,” she said. She also said asylum minister Marjolein Faber should not be expected to promote refugee centres. “That is up to the local authorities based on the current law,” she said.

Uitermark said she supports the withdrawal of the spreidingswet because it is “reinforcing sentiments that may already be present.”

Faber herself commented that she is not “personally” committed to the law but that it must be applied. She denied that this could have contributed to the rioting.

The law will not be abolished any time soon, however.  A discussion about the subject was removed from the cabinet’s agenda in March by prime minster Dick Schoof because Faber had neglected to provide ministers with the proper documents.