Police were called out to deal with incidents involving asylum seekers 4,600 times in 2018, the annual justice ministry report on asylum seekers in the Netherlands shows.

Almost half of the incidents involved shoplifting or pickpocketing but police also registered cases of physical abuse, threatening behaviour and damage to property. In addition, the figures include suicides, suicide threats and violation of house rules in asylum seekers’ centres.

Asylum seekers who come from so-called safe countries, namely Morocco and Algeria, and who therefore have little chance of getting asylum, accounted for almost half the incidents, the report said.

Some 1,710 people were responsible for the 2,610 cases dealt with by the public prosecution office which means a number of them were repeat offenders, the report states.

Almost eight in 10 cases ended up in court.

In total 45 asylum seekers were told to leave the country because of criminal activities last year but this figure only applies to asylum seekers whose country of origin would entitle them to seek asylum, the report says.

The Netherlands comes 7^th in the list of European countries with 21,945 asylum requests. Germany tops the list with 173,640.