By Burak Bir
LONDON (AA) - Asylum seekers will no longer be kept at Schiphol Detention Center after Dutch judges ruled that it is "too similar" to a prison, local media reported on Friday.
The Hague judges ruled that detaining asylum seekers at the Schiphol Detention Centre in Amsterdam is unlawful as the facility treats asylum seekers "too similarly to prisoners."
The verdict comes after an asylum seeker, a man of unknown origin who arrived at Schiphol Airport on a flight from Taiwan on Jan. 1, approached the court about the state of the center, the NL Times reported, citing the ANP news agency.
Judges visited the complex and ruled that it is unlawful to detain asylum seekers in the place.
The man was sent to the judicial complex at Schiphol after he requested asylum, as there are six departments at the Detention Centre, which can all hold 45 asylum seekers each.
However, the asylum seekers are locked in their cells from 10 pm to 8 am every evening, while there are also eight departments for prisoners in different parts of the same building.
The prison yards and asylum seekers' shelters are adjacent to each other, separated by a three-meter-high concrete wall, but according to the report, asylum seekers and prisoners can even meet each other on the stairs and in the hallways.
In the center, detained asylum seekers are given very little possibility to go outside, and they are also restricted in their movements through the building and can use their cell phones on very limited occasions.