{"id":10986,"date":"2026-05-12T23:03:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/10986\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T23:03:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T23:03:08","slug":"huge-fire-breaks-out-at-asylum-seeker-centre-world-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/10986\/","title":{"rendered":"Huge fire breaks out at asylum seeker centre | World | News"},"content":{"rendered":"

A fire has broken out at an emergency centre for asylum seekers in the Netherlands<\/a> after protestors reportedly hurled fireworks. Video footage posted online on X shows a blaze raging at an asylum seekers<\/a>‘ centre in Loosdrecht.<\/p>\n

Journalist Owen O’Brien posted: “BREAKING: Fire started at #AZC<\/a> in Loosdrecht by sparklers. About to spread to the building. No fire department in the area yet. Police holding urgent consultations but not intervening yet.”<\/p>\n

According to local media, 200 people descended on Loosdrecht town hall last week to protest against plans to open a temporary refugee centre.<\/p>\n

The site saw further protests on Tuesday evening, although the number of demonstrators has yet to be confirmed by authorities.<\/p>\n

The small village near Hilversum has been at the centre of anti-refugee protests in recent days, many of which have turned violent.<\/p>\n

The first refugees are now due to arrive next week and their number has been cut from 110 to 70 following the protests.<\/p>\n

Mr O\u2019Brien, who was in attendance at the demonstration on Tuesday evening, claimed that firefighters had been held back as they attempted to respond to the incident.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cFire brigade is being held back here in #Loosdrecht and cannot extinguish the fire. Next to the building entrance now a large tree is on fire. It is a major chaos.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video from the scene later showed firefighters gaining access to the building and the fire brought under control.<\/p>\n

Far-right MP Gidi Markuszower spoke at a demonstration at the site last week in which he said that refugees should \u201cgo back to their own country\u201d.<\/p>\n

Local mayor Mark Verheijen accused violent demonstrators of \u201cundermining our free society\u201d, claiming that many of those present were not local residents.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, unrest erupted on the same evening near Den Bosch, as protesters opposed to a proposed accommodation site for young refugees briefly brought traffic on the A59 to a halt.<\/p>\n

Local broadcaster Omroep Brabant reported that around 100 people gathered near the Waalwijk exit, some holding banners and burning torches, before police moved in.<\/p>\n

The planned site, being developed by the COA refugee settlement agency, would house 50 unaccompanied teenage refugees in a small-scale facility on an industrial estate near the motorway.<\/p>\n

Two people were arrested during the demonstration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fire has broken out at an emergency centre for asylum seekers in the Netherlands after protestors reportedly…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":10987,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9188,5257,9187,6,9189,1411],"class_list":["post-10986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-netherlands","tag-asylum-centre","tag-fire","tag-fire-news","tag-netherlands","tag-protestors","tag-protests"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10986\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/netherlands\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}