Netherlands police remove dead pigs from refugee centre

Two dead pigs have been removed by police from the site of a proposed centre for 500 refugees in the south of the Netherlands – the second time that pig carcasses have been used to send an anonymous anti-immigrant message.

One pig was hung by a chain from a tree next to a building earmarked for the centre near Heesch – population of about 12,000 – which the local town council conceded on Tuesday would probably have to remain open for about a decade. The second carcass was dumped on the roof.

The pigs were accompanied by signs saying “The people say no to an asylum centre” and “500 is too many” – though police said they had no power to remove the signs because they did not say anything inflammatory or discriminatory.

Before Christmas, 12 pigs heads were dumped at the gate to a field near Eschmarkerveld, in the east of the country, which had been earmarked for a new refugee reception centre. On that occasion the heads were accompanied by a sign, “Welcome to the hell that is Eschmarkerveld.”

The majority of the 59,100 people who have sought asylum in the Netherlands since the start of 2015 are Muslims for whom pork and pig derivatives are unfit for human consumption – and specifically referred to in the Koran as “impure” and “unclean”.

Tensions have been high as a result of efforts by municipalities around the country to resettle the immigrants, in many cases even temporarily.

The worst flare-up was the rioting by up to 2,000 people in the town of Geldermalsen, southeast of Amsterdam, last month, when police fired warning shots over the heads of the crowd to stop a meeting of the town council being overrun.

That climate is unlikely to be improved by the confirmation from the public prosecutor’s office last evening that two asylum seekers, aged 18 and 20, are to appear in court early next month charged with sexual assault.

One man is suspected of one attack and the other of two, both last September. Police have refused to divulge their nationalities. “It is not relevant,” a spokesman said.

Anger at the number of refugees arriving in the country has, however, boosted the popularity of right-wing politician Geert Wilders, who warned last week that it would "not be long" before the Netherlands faced Cologne-style "group attacks" on women.

“Testosterone bombs, I have called them, but it is far worse than that,” Mr Wilders said. “This is sexual terrorism. This is sexual jihad. It is coming our way.”

A new opinion poll during the week suggested that the Freedom Party would hit an all-time high of 41 seats in the 150-seat parliament, or almost 29 per cent of the vote, if a general election were held tomorrow.

The poll put Prime Minister Mark Rutte's Liberal Party third with 18 seats, a significant drop of 23 seats on the 2012 election result, with the Christian Democrats on 19. Worse still, it put junior coalition partners Labour on just nine seats – down an extraordinary 29 seats.