With full prisons, European countries rent vacancies in arrests abroad

This policy, which the current Belgian government reconsiders today, generates concern among the family members of the detainees. “When people are in prison, they are not deprived of rights: they are entitled to visits, family relationships, preparation for reintegration,” says Olivia Nederlandt. “All these aspects become more complicated with a prison abroad,” she emphasized.

In 2015, Norway rented cells in Norgerhaven prison in the Netherlands, as reported by the country’s correctional services. This agreement ended in 2018.

Denmark rents hundreds of cells in Kosovo

Due to the lack of space in its prison establishments, Denmark obtained in 2019 an agreement with Kosovo, located over 2,000 km south of the kingdom. This cooperation involves 300 individual cells, as reported to BBCfor an annual cost of 15 million euros (about R $ 94 million).

Signed in 2021, the agreement took the form of a ten -year treaty from September 2024, explains the Euronews. For Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard, the idea is to “explore the surplus capacity of Kosovo’s arrests and detention centers in order to relieve Danish arrests. “It’s a precious help for Denmark at a time when prison and parole services are under pressure,” he said during a visit to this country of the Balkans.

Under the Danish law, the rented cells are intended to house detainees from non-EU member countries, which must be expelled from Denmark after their conviction, according to information from the website of FRANCEINFO.