With crime declining in the Netherlands, the country is looking at new ways to fill its prisons.
The government has let Belgium and Norway put prisoners in empty cells and now, amid the huge flow of migrants into Europe, several Dutch prisons have been temporarily pressed into service as asylum-seeker centers.
Most of the 12 former prisons and jails housing asylum seekers have been so transformed that they are barely recognizable as former places of involuntary detention, though in some cases the thick cell doors and bars on windows are stark reminders of the past.
Prisons in the cities of Haarlem and Arnhem, with their distinctive domed roofs and circular galleries of cells around a central covered courtyard, are considered national monuments and cannot be renovated. Even so, with just under 60,000 migrants arriving in the Netherlands last year, they have been temporarily pressed into service to house hundreds of asylum seekers.
In this Wednesday, April 20, 2016 photo, refugees and migrants line up to receive their lunch at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
“We had to think twice about using prisons with (cell) doors,” said Janet Helder, a board member with the Dutch government agency responsible for housing asylum seekers. “Some people in the neighborhood asked, ‘how can you put people from Syria who may have been imprisoned there in a cell here?’ So we decided that if people really have a problem with it we will find somewhere else for them.”
But the prisons often are well suited to their new use, Helder added. Her organization currently is housing some 41,000 people at 120 locations throughout the Netherlands.
“The rooms are intended for one or two people, there are often gyms, a good kitchen,” she said. “So in that sense they tick many of the boxes we are looking at.”
Asylum seekers who spoke to The Associated Press during recent visits to the prisons had few complaints beyond gripes about the food. While they live in prisons, they are free to leave the buildings and grounds during the day and even spend some nights away.
Abdul Moeen Alhaji, a 16-year-old Syrian, is happy to call a prison cell in Arnhem home after initially staying in a tent in a temporary camp outside the city of Nijmegen.
“I don’t feel that it is a prison,” he said. “What matters is that we are safe here”
Menno Schot, who runs the center in the Haarlem prison, says staffers try to help the 400 migrants adapt to Dutch life as they wait for the lengthy asylum process to start.
In this video, AP photographer Muhammed Muheisen describes covering migrants living in a defunct prison in the Netherlands.
For 18-year-old Gerbia Hajji, a Yazidi from Sinjar, Iraq, that has meant practicing riding one of the Netherlands’ ubiquitous bicycles in a courtyard at the Haarlem prison. Her husband, Yassir, was a barber back home and wants to learn Dutch so that he can pick up his trade again. He was keeping his skills up to date recently by shaping his wife’s eyebrows in the cell they share on the third floor of the Haarlem prison.
In a nearby cell, a single flower taped to its door, Hamed Karmi was also practicing — playing a keyboard while his wife, Farishta Morahami, sat on the bunk bed in their cell listening to the music, a calming way to spend a few minutes for the young couple who fled a village near the Afghan capital, Kabul, amid rising Taliban attacks. They paid smugglers $8,000 to get to Europe.
“Their safety is our main priority along with their health and daily needs,” Schot said of the prison’s new residents. “The country is new for them so we are their guide in Holland.”
In this Saturday, May 7, 2016 photo, Afghan refugee Shazia Lutfi, 19, peeks through the door of her room at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. The government has let Belgium and Norway put prisoners in its empty cells and now, amid the huge flow of migrants into Europe, several Dutch prisons have been temporarily pressed into service as asylum seeker centers. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, May 6, 2016 photo, Iranian migrant Reda Ehsan, 25, lies on a table at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Wednesday, April 20, 2016 photo, Iraqi refugee Fatima Hussein, 65, prays inside her room at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Tuesday, April 26, 2016 photo, a gay Moroccan migrant, who prefers not to have his name mentioned, poses for a picture inside his room at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, April 10, 2016 photo, an Afghan refugee holding a child looks outside a window of a room at the former prison of Westlingen in Heerhugowaard northwestern Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Tuesday, May 10, 2016 photo, refugees and migrants play football at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Wednesday, April 20, 2016 photo, Mongolian migrant Naaran Baatar, 40, plays basketball at a yard of the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Monday, April 25, 2016 photo, In this Sunday, May 1, 2016 photo, Afghan refugee Siratullah Hayatullah, 23, washes in a washing room in the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Tuesday, April 26, 2016 photo, Somali migrant Ijaawa Mohamed, 41, sits on a chair outside a room at the women section of the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Tuesday, April 26, 2016 photo, a migrant sits outside her room while another runs in the corridor of the women section of the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, May 6, 2016 photo, Iraqi refugee Fatima Hussein, 65, reacts while she and others wait in a bus heading to have a government interview for their asylum seeking process outside the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, April 8, 2016 photo, a migrant plays with a girl at the former prison of Westlingen in Heerhugowaard northwestern Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Thursday, April 21, 2016 photo, Syrian refugee Fadi Tahhan, 23, right, sings while playing Oud at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Monday, May 2, 2016 photo, a Dutch volunteer teaches an Afghan refugee woman how to ride a bicycle at a yard in the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, May 1, 2016 photo, an Afghan refugee man, center, listens to another Afghan refugee at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, May 1, 2016 photo, Afghan refugee Siratullah Hayatullah, 23, drinks tea by the doorway of his room at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Friday, April 29, 2016 photo, Syrian refugee Alaa Mohammed, 35, watches TV in his room at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. With crime declining in the Netherlands, the country is looking at new ways to fill its prisons. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Thursday, April 21, 2016 photo, Syrian refugee Imad Abdulrahman, 30, gives a haircut to another Syrian refugee in a room at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Wednesday, April 6, 2016 photo, Afghan refugee Hamed Karmi, 27, plays keyboard next to his wife Farishta Morahami, 25, sitting on a bed inside their room at the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
In this Sunday, May 1, 2016 photo, Yazidi refugee Yassir Hajji, 24, from Sinjar, Iraq, adjusts the eyebrow of his wife Gerbia,18, in their room in the former prison of De Koepel in Haarlem, Netherlands. (AP Photo/Muhammed Muheisen)
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One thought on “For Asylum Seekers, Dutch Prisons Feel Like Home”