In the middle of an industrial estate in Zaandam, just north of Amsterdam, stands the newest prison in the Netherlands.But the word "stands" is not quite right, because this prison is in fact moored on one of the country's many waterways.

And the inmates in this floating prison are not criminals but illegal immigrants, guilty of what the Dutch call an "administrative offence".

This is the answer to a problem the authorities faced in the late 1990s - how to separate illegal immigrants from ordinary criminals when you already have overcrowded prisons.

"It's easier to get a place on the water than to find land, plus it's easy to build," says Erik Nijman from the Dutch ministry of justice.

And he says a floating prison is also more flexible: "If we have a problem for example in Amsterdam, we can transport them over water."
Living on the margins

Dutch police do not actively seek out illegal immigrants, but if someone is questioned by the police and does not have the right papers, they will be detained.

As a result people like Galina, a Ukrainian university graduate, live on the margins of society.

She was smuggled into the Netherlands from Poland after paying a local man her entire savings of 1,100 euros (£786). But promises of work soon evaporated and she has struggled to get by.

"It's very difficult because when I go across the street and see the police, every time I am afraid I will go to prison. But I only want to work and live here legally. It's a problem."

After five hard months, Galina has decided to head for home. And the Dutch authorities are hoping that a stay in their new floating prison will persuade other illegal migrants to follow her example.

Does a girl from Ukraine really have to be smuggled to the NL, I would have thought that a tourist visa would be easy to get.
Pussy, I thought that you did not have a dot on your computer so thanks for fixing that even thougth you might have glued the dot to your enter button:)

No way, it is tough for Ukrainians to get visas into NL (or Europe for that matter) since they often don't come back. Bulgarians and others who are now EU members is a different matter, although I think the visa situation will still need some sorting given issues with immigrants in NL and other locations (Dutch colleagues would know more).

I've come off flights from Ukraine into Schiphol that were especially met by Police types checking passports/visas...

As to the paragraph or period on Pussy's posts (don't mind them myself, but they are a bit hard to read), this one looks like a cut/paste from an article...

Whoa Nellie

please: if you take material from another source (like the BBC in this case -- I read the article already) give proper credit.

we don't like people ripping us off so...it goes both ways.

-paniked

Oh yeah and I didnt write this BTW

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Why are people so fixated by punctuation? The content is what is important and sometimes english is not a first language.

Get over the grammar! Content is what is important and to critisize may put some people off posting, which would be a shame!!!!!

seconded

Grammar is what makes it possible to extract meaning from symbols. The less proper use of grammar, the more difficult it becomes to extract meaning.

However, from what I've seen around here folks are very understanding when it comes to those using second (or third or fourth) languages.