Five gay asylum seekers in Amsterdam have been moved to a new location after they were spat on and attacked by other people in their refugee centre, the Parool says on Friday.

The five – three from Syria, one from Iran and one from Iraq – have been moved to a house owned by housing corporation Rochdale. Junior justice minister Klaas Dijkhoff said earlier he did not support separate accommodation for gay refugees because it was ‘stigmatising’.

A spokesman for the Salvation Army, which is in charge of refugee accommodation in the capital, said the men’s safety could not be guaranteed in their former housing.

‘They often don’t dare to leave their rooms,’ Philip Tijsma from gay rights lobby group COC told the Parool.

In October, two other asylum seekers were rehoused after problems at a refugee centre in the district of Zuidoost. This weekend, four other gay men will move to a house in Rotterdam.

The Parool said that at the beginning of next year gay refugees will have their own wing in the Groenhof refugee centre in a former care home close to the city centre.

‘LGBTs are extra vulnerable and I consider it crucial that they have a safe environment to recover and receive care,’ city alderman Simone Kukenheim said.