Photo Essay: Refugees In The Netherlands Are Being Re-Homed In Empty Prisons

In the Netherlands old hospitals are now student dorms, and old churches are repurposed as schools. 

With the declining level of crime, Dutch cells are emptying. In a country were reusing old buildings is pretty common, it shouldn't come as a surprise that empty prisons have a new, better life now. 

The AP photographer Muhammed Muheisen, who in 2015 witnessed the flow of refugees arriving in Greece, decided to follow up on their stories after they arrived in Europe. 

“Most people think that once people arrive, the story’s over. But to me, that’s just when the story starts.”

In this photo essay, he follows the refugees who have settled in the Netherlands, where the Dutch government has repurposed empty prisons as temporary homes. 

In Amsterdam, more than 600 refugees have a bed and warm meals while they wait to be placed in real homes. Kids get to play in the yard outside, or in the corridors, while other refugees learn how to ride a bicycle, one of the preferred means of transportation in the city. They are the lucky ones. 

“We don’t care,” one woman told him about living, for now, in a former prison. “All that matters is that we’re safe.”

How many empty buildings around the world could be reused with the same purpose? How many people would be able to sleep under a roof, safe, while waiting to start a new life?

Life in this prison is real, and is beautiful.