Locking up asylum seekers, especially children, in Dutch detention centres is against human rights, the Council of Europe’s representative said on Friday.

Nils Muiznieks, the Council’s high commissioner for human rights, was speaking at the end of his visit to the Netherlands where he had talks with ministers and visited a church sheltering asylum seekers due for deportation and a detention centre at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport.

Muiznieks said he recognises the Netherlands is dealing with a huge stream of migrants and that the country does allow a relatively large number to stay.

However, he is critical of the treatment of those refused leave to remain, who sometimes end up on the streets without food or shelter. ‘This cannot continue,’ he is quoted as saying by news site nu.nl.

He said these people must be helped to return to their homeland and where this is not possible, they must be given help to live in the Netherlands.

Child amnesty

He was also critical of the child amnesty rules. ‘I do not understand why the status of well-integrated children is in any doubt,’ he said, referring to rules which allow children under state supervision to stay but not those under local authority care.

‘The Netherlands plays an important international role in human rights, but it must also play that role within its own borders,’ Muiznieks said.

Children’s ombudsman Marc Dullaert, who called the child amnesty rules ‘idiotic’ earlier this month, told nu.nl that it is ‘painful to have an official visit from the high commissioner who then confirms there are worrying signals in the Dutch system’.

The Netherlands is a co-founder of the Council of Europe.