A Seoul court has ruled against the state in a damages lawsuit filed by 26 victims of a welfare center once located in Busan.

The court ruled that Brothers Home must pay the plaintiffs 80 million won, or over 61-thousand U.S. dollars, per year of detention, resulting in compensation ranging from 80 million won to a maximum of one-point-12 billion won per victim.

The sum is 70 percent of the 20-point-three billion won they collectively sought originally.

From 1975 to 1987, the government took roughly 38-thousand people off the streets and brought them to the welfare center, with the promise of food, education, and job training.

However, many, including minors, were beaten, sexually assaulted and used for slave labor, with a reported 650 deaths at the facility.

This is the first acknowledgement of the state’s responsibility for compensating the victims of the welfare center.