Dutch officials on Thursday probed the death of a baby at a vastly overcrowded centre for asylum seekers, as medical charity MSF deployed at the site.

The infant's death is the latest incident at the Ter Apel centre in northern Netherlands and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounced the "inhuman" conditions there.

Long lines of asylum seekers have formed at Ter Apel where the staff is battling to cope to process applicants.

On Wednesday, more than 700 people slept in the open for a second straight night, news reports said.

"Youth Care and Justice Department inspectors are probing the infant's death, which happened at a sports hall used as an emergency shelter," the Dutch Justice Department said.

"Currently little is known about the baby's death, but first aid given failed to reanimate the child," said the statement.

The Dutch branch of MSF deployed in Ter Apel on Thursday -- a first for the organisation usually giving medical assistance to those in need in war zones.

"As from today we are giving medical care in Ter Apel," Doctors Without Borders diretor Judith Sargentini said.

"Living conditions there are inhuman and must be improved immediately," she told AFP.

"There are no showers and the toilets are dirty," she said.

"We have reached a low point in our country," added Groningen mayor Koen Schuiling, calling on other municipalities to open their doors and help alleviate overcrowding at Ter Apel.

But plans to give asylum-seekers accommodation elsewhere have run into fierce resistance.

Residents of the small eastern town of Albergen have been protesting for days against the Dutch refugee agency's annoucement to house up to 300 asylum-seekers in a local hotel.

Chanting slogans like "No to asylum seekers!" and "Go away!", residents said the decision was forced upon them despite objections that the town was too small for the influx of hundreds of foreigners.

Experts say the current asylum-seeker crisis did not stem from higher numbers of people crossing the border into the Netherlands.

Rather, it resulted from a current housing shortage in the Netherlands and the Dutch government scaling down its capacity to handle asylum-seeker numbers --  which took a downturn during the coronavirus pandemic.

© Agence France-Presse