Denmark to rent prison places in Kosovo for migrants subject to deportation orders

Denmark is expected to soon rent 300 prisons in Kosovo for foreign prisoners sentenced to deportation. An idea which, contrary to the law, appeals to Belgium, Sweden and France.

It's not Cayenne , but on the current European trend on immigration and the application of criminal law is still something deeply disturbing. Denmark is preparing to rent 300 places in Gnjilane (Kosovo), some 2 000 kilometres from its border, to combat prison overcrowding and staff shortages.

The agreement applies to migrants who are subject to deportation orders because they have broken the law. Most often they are convicted of theft, forgery or possession of illegal substances. Prisoners will thus serve their sentences in Kosovo before being deported to their countries of origin, with no guarantee that the countries of origin will play the game and accept those whose applications have been rejected.

The ten-year lease of prison places for a sum of 200 million euros, which had been under discussion from 2021, was finalised last February in a cooperation agreement with the Kosovo government. "This sends a clear signal to foreign criminals: their future is not in Denmark and they should not serve their sentences here." said Danish Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard during a vote in the Kosovo parliament in May 2024. Never mind that the measure deprives migrants of the right of appeal in the event of deportation.

Greenwashing, overpopulation, degrading and inhumane practices

The agreement signed with Kosovo provides that part of the amount will be allocated to improve prison facilities in the country and to renewable energy projects. Despite this green light, the UN Committee against Torture , which has repeatedly warned of degrading and inhumane practices in Kosovo's prisons, has already expressed doubts about it, "how Denmark intends to comply with its obligations under the Convention in prisons located outside its territory". 

Kosovo experts also point out that the country's prisons are already overcrowded and cannot sufficiently accommodate convicts from other countries. "We are aware of the large number of self-inflicted injuries. There are collisions in prisons and deaths as well. Until recently, conditions in Kosovo prisons generally did not meet international or European standards and only three new prisons have been built in the last five years that meet these standards," Notes Fatmire Haliti from the Kosovo Rehabilitation Centre for Victims of Torture.

Sweden, the Netherlands, Belgium and France are not indifferent to this idea

Denmark and its centrist government are not the only ones considering deporting some prisoners abroad. In an interview with  Journal du Dimanche of 22 March, the French Minister of Justice Gérald Darmanin estimated that "there is no legal counter-argument at the moment" against the outsourcing of incarceration. This is also the case in Sweden, which has set up a commission of experts responsible for finding "within the EU or the Schengen area" , and in the Netherlands, which has made no secret of the fact that it is addressing the issue. Estonia has already applied and set the monthly rent for a cell at EUR 3 500.

In early April, Belgian Justice Minister Annelies Verlinden admitted that she was intrigued by the idea. "There is no room in Belgian prisons ," she said in an interview with the Dutch-language daily Het Belang van Limburg (Limburg interest) and mentioned Kosovo as one of the options. Although the proposal is included in the programme of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), a nationalist party premiere by Bart De Wever , raises serious legal questions. Because although Belgium was the first European Union (EU) country to transfer its prisoners to a third country (Tilburg prison in the Netherlands), it had previously done so within the Community area.

Since 2008, EU decisions have effectively introduced the principle of mutual recognition of court decisions imposing custodial sentences. The text thus authorises a member country to enforce a prison sentence handed down in another country against a person residing in its territory. Kosovo, which applied for EU membership in December 2022, may see this outsourcing of tasks as an illusory way to speed up the approval of its application, in a Europe increasingly inclined to make migration a security issue.

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