Vakantiepark Oranje (COA, Drenthe)
Vakantiepark Oranje, a former holiday park in the tiny Drenthe hamlet of Oranje (around 140 inhabitants), became a national flashpoint in October 2015 when State Secretary Klaas Dijkhoff announced he would double the number of asylum seekers there to 1,400. Furious residents blockaded the access road with cars and caravans, turned back arriving buses, and surrounded Dijkhoff's car, tearing off a mirror and kicking it; the local mayor publicly called the government untrustworthy. Residents said they felt betrayed after an earlier promise to cap numbers.
Occupancy
1,400
people (Aug 2025)
Per night
€80
per person (benchmark)
Annual
€41m
estimated
Background
The site sits at Oranje, Midden-Drenthe, Drenthe. It is run by the COA (Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers), the Dutch government’s asylum-reception agency. For what the azc / noodopvang categories mean and how Dutch reception spending breaks down, open the cost panel on the interactive map with the Netherlands selected in Settings.
In the news
Oct 2015
Residents of Oranje stop buses with extra asylum seekers
NOS reported villagers blockading the access road and turning back buses after the government moved to double reception numbers at the park.
NOS · source
Oct 2015
Mayor of Midden-Drenthe: the government is unreliable
The local mayor publicly criticised central government over the handling of the Oranje reception decision.
NOS · source
Compiled from public Dutch news reports (each item links to its source). Where a municipality runs more than one reception location, attribution to this specific address reflects the cited report and may be approximate — always check the linked source.
Timeline
Oct 2015
Residents blockade road over doubling of reception
Villagers blocked buses and confronted State Secretary Dijkhoff after he announced 700 extra asylum seekers, on top of 700 already there.
Cost
Dutch asylum reception is funded by central government through the COA. At an illustrative benchmark of about €80 per person per night for a regular centre, the 1400 people recorded here on 13 August 2025 imply roughly €41m per year. This is an order-of-magnitude figure for context only, not a site-specific invoice — emergency reception typically runs around three times the cost of a regular centre.
Sources
COA · 2023-2025. View source
Occupancy is the COA register snapshot of 13 August 2025 and may have changed since. Coordinates were geocoded from the published street address via the official PDOK Locatieserver.