Children cycling to and from a special needs school in the small town of Loon op Zand, in the south of the Netherlands, are to be given an official escort next week – because the route brings them past a refugee centre housing asylum seekers from Iraq and Syria.

In an extraordinary example of the impact of Europe’s refugee crisis in small communities at the turn of the year, a spokesman for the town council said the decision to provide the escort had been taken because “they had been unable to assuage parents’ fears for their children’s safety”.

The first of about 1,200 refugees have already arrived at a former holiday village on the outskirts of the town and are due to remain there for the next three months as a temporary measure for the winter, before moving to permanent accommodation.

There had been no public consultation, the council said on its website, because it believed that housing the migrants was “of social importance” – and because it had anticipated the views of its “welcoming community”.

About 60 children attend the special needs school, but the number cycling this particular route varies. Acknowledging that there was no reason for the escort other than the refugee centre, Alderman Wil Ligtenberg said: “These are special needs children and therefore vulnerable.”

Children from other schools in the area who need to cycle or walk the same route will not be offered an escort or any supervision.

Stigmatises refugees

A spokesman said: “The council should, of course, take local people’s fears seriously. But in this case, the council is simply confirming totally unjustified concerns.”

Ironically, last year the same town council abolished a bus service for special needs children to ferry them from the town to the same school.

Public consultation meetings about refugee accommodation have been heated and at times even violent in a number of Dutch towns in recent months – most notably in Geldermalsen where riot police fired warning shots and fought running battles with up to 2,000 protesters in December.

The local police chief in Geldermalsen has since rubbished claims that the rioters were from outside the town, saying that all 14 people arrested were local – as were the majority involved in the riots. The attack on the town hall meeting “appeared to have been co-ordinated”, he said.

However, the plans for a centre to house 1,500 refugees have since been abandoned – showing opponents that protests can work.

A new survey of Dutch attitudes by the Social Policy Institute this week showed less concern about the economy but more concern about the refugee crisis – with twice as many people as 12 months ago identifying the latter as the biggest problem facing the country.