Protests raged and politicians promised aid, but hundreds of migrants spent another night sleeping outside an overcrowded Dutch asylum centre, as pressure grows on the government to solve the issue.
Aid organizations say the hygiene conditions in the vicinity of the centre near the village of Ter Apel, which lies on the border to Germany, have been unacceptable for weeks.
The Cabinet is currently "busy with nothing else," said Prime Minister Mark Rutte late on Thursday, according to the ANP news agency. He described the situation in Ter Apel as "terrible."
Late on Thursday, the Central Office for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) took about 150 refugees from around Ter Apel to Apeldoorn, 150 kilometres away, where they were accommodated in sports halls. After four days, they are to move into accommodation in Doetinchem in the south of the Netherlands.
Meanwhile, the European Commission has called on the Netherlands to thoroughly investigate the death of a three-month-old baby in Ter Apel, ANP reported. The child died on Wednesday in a gymnasium set up as an emergency shelter.
According to ANP, an EU spokesperson said officials were aware of the "challenging situation in the Netherlands' reception centre" and were ready to support the country.
Several hundred people - residents of Ter Apel as well as from other places in the north of the Netherlands - protested on Thursday against the "overburdening" of the community by the asylum centre.
