Refugees in the Netherlands are welcomed with open arms... and put in prison

In an attempt to find a new use for things, a state agency in the Netherlands has opened empty prisons to accommodate migrants arriving in the country in search of asylum. As the crime rate and the number of prisoners in the Netherlands have steadily declined in recent years, dozens of correctional institutions have been closed. When the number of migrants began to grow — and more than 50,000 people arrived in the Netherlands last year alone — the Central Agency for the Reception of People in Need of Asylum (COA) found a way out.

(14 photos in total)

Source: National Geographic

Photojournalist Mohammed Muheisen, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner and senior photographer for the Associated Press, has devoted the last few years to filming the migrant crisis and the movement of people across the continent. "There was always a question in my head: what's next? — he says. "The journey doesn't end when they enter the country."

Iranian migrant Reda Eshan lies on a table in the courtyard of De Koipel prison.

Last fall, Muheisen heard talk about the reuse of places of detention. "I didn't quite get it. I thought they felt like they were really in prison."

A 19-year-old Afghan refugee looks out from behind the door of her cell at De Koipel Prison in Haarlem, the Netherlands.

It took the photographer six months to get permission to shoot on the prison grounds. Muhuizen then spent 40 days visiting three different prisons, getting to know their inmates and filming their daily lives.

Yazidi refugee Yassir Haji was a barber in Iraq. In the cell where he lives with his wife Gerbia in De Coypel prison, he trains by taking care of her eyebrows.

"We are talking about dozens of different nations," says the photographer. — About dozens. The whole world has gathered under this roof."

Algerian migrant Mohamed Ben Salem (left) and Libyan Amin Oshi smoke cigarettes in the courtyard of the De Coypel prison.

Migrants who will have to spend at least six months in prison awaiting refugee status are free to come and go at will. Muhuizen says that some migrants develop strong friendly relations with the Dutch living in the neighborhood.

A gay Moroccan migrant, who wished to remain anonymous, stands in his cell of a former prison. He fled Morocco after receiving death threats and was given asylum in the Netherlands.

Refugees are not allowed to work, but they practice Dutch and learn to ride bicycles — both of these skills are vital in the Netherlands. Most refugees are not embarrassed by the fact that they do this while in prison.

Mongolian migrant Naaran Baatar, who is 40 years old, plays basketball on the playground in De Koipel prison.

According to Muheisen, when he asked the refugees how they felt about such accommodation, the typical answer was: "We have a roof over our heads here, a shelter, and we feel safe."

An Iraqi refugee, 65-year-old Fatima Hussein, is waiting on a bus at the gates of De Koipel prison. Together with other migrants, she is going to an interview with representatives of the Dutch authorities as part of the asylum procedure.

One Syrian told Muheisen that life in prison gave him hope for the future. "If there are no prisoners in the country to put in jail, it means that this is the safest country, and I want to live here."

A refugee from Somalia, 41-year-old Ijaawa Mohamed, sits on a chair in the department for single women in De Koipel prison.

An Afghan refugee, 23-year-old Siratullah Hayatullah, drinks tea at the threshold of his cell, looking at the courtyard of De Koipel prison.

A Syrian refugee, 23-year-old Fadi Tahhan, sings a song and plays an instrument called oud. At this stage, refugees are not allowed to work, so they find their own ways to spend time.

Fatima Hussein, a 65-year-old Iraqi refugee, prays in her cell.

A 23-year-old refugee from Afghanistan, Siratullah Hayatullah, does laundry in the prison laundry.

An Afghan refugee with a child looks out the window at a now-closed prison in the northwest of the Netherlands.

A migrant plays with a girl near the former Westlingen prison.