Refugees in the Netherlands have paid more than €700,000 (£530,000) over the past four years towards the cost of living in centres for asylum seekers, figures show.
Plans in Denmark, Switzerland and Germany to seize cash and valuables from refugees to help pay for their accommodation have caused controversy recently.
Under a regulation that has been in place since 2008, working refugees in the Netherlands have to hand over 75% of their income to cover the cost of food and living expenses.
Asylum seekers are also required to declare any savings or valuables they bring into the country to the COA, the organisation that runs Dutch refugee centres.
Deductions can be made if the holdings amount to more than €5,895 for an individual or €11,790 for a family. Personal possessions are included, though exceptions are made for items such as computers, mobile phones and wedding rings.
Figures compiled by the COA showed that refugees paid a total of €221,000 towards their upkeep in 2012, €178,000 in 2013 and €177,000 in 2014. The provisional figure for 2015 is €137,000, though this could rise as more contributions are collected.
There are currently 47,500 refugees in the Netherlands, nearly twice as many as at the end of 2014 and three times the number in the previous year.
Asylum seekers are entitled to work for up to 24 weeks a year once they have been in the country for six months.
The COA did not have figures for how much was claimed from savings and possessions rather than income, but a spokesman told the media group Elsevier that earnings made up the bulk of the total.
A spokeswoman for the Dutch Council for Refugees said: “It’s inappropriate to seize people’s personal possessions, but where people genuinely have the means it’s reasonable to bill them for their expenses.”
Other European countries have attracted criticism for plans to confiscate cash and valuables from refugees when they enter the country in order to pay for their upkeep. Denmark’s government wants to take any amount above 10,000 kroner (£1,000) in cash “to pay for their stay”, while two German states, Bavaria and Baden-Württemburg, plan to claim cash and possessions worth more than €750 and €350 respectively (£570 and £265).
Switzerland requires refugees to hand over any amount above 1,000 francs (£690), though they can claim it back if they leave within seven months.
Under the Dutch system, refugees are charged by the accommodation agency once they are housed, rather than by the immigration service on arrival. The deputy justice minister, Klaas Dijkhoff, told parliament last week that there were no plans to introduce Swiss-style measures. “We’ve organised it in a different way,” he said.
Local town halls have become the focus of protests by anti-immigration groups who have hurled bottles and fireworks outside council meetings, sent bullets in the post to officials and dumped severed pigs’ heads at sites of proposed refugee centres.