Travellers’ groups have filed formal complaints against mayors in three provinces accusing them of discrimination by branding their communities as criminal organisations.

Mayors in Limburg, Brabant and Zeeland wrote to home affairs minister Kajsa Ollongren in October objecting to the cabinet’s new policy on travellers’ camps, claiming it would lead to more criminality.

Ollongren drew up the new rules after the national Ombudsman and human rights watchdog CRM said local authorities that deliberately marginalised travelling communities through so-called “extinction policies” were breaking the law.

Members of the Sinti, Roma and travelling communities have now filed formal complaints against local officials accusing them of polarisation, racism and discrimination.

“Associating a type of living with criminality is against the law,” spokeswoman Sabina Achterbergh told NOS. “We don’t all want to be tarred with the same brush. Criminality exists in every section of the population.”