Denmark: first agreement to send 300 detainees to a Kosovo prison
Gjilan Prison, Kosovo.
It is to this establishment that 300 detainees by Denmark would be sent, according to the first agreement reached with the Kosovar authorities on Monday, December 20, 2021. AP
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The Danish and Kosovar justice ministers signed a declaration of intent on Monday, December 20 which provides for the sending of 300 foreign detainees to Kosovo, one of the poorest countries in Europe.
The government of Pristina, in exchange for the provision of penitentiary capacities for these prisoners, will receive 15 million euros annually over an initial period of five years.
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This is an unprecedented transaction for a Scandinavian country.
According to the terms of the agreement reached on Monday, Denmark aims to rent prison cells in Kosovo for a period of ten years.
The cost of this subsidy paid by Copenhagen to Pristina will eventually amount to 210 million euros.
The objective for Denmark is to transfer from 2023 prisoners sentenced to expulsion and who have already served their sentence.
The Social Democratic government, at the initiative of this unprecedented transaction, hopes to relieve the overcrowded prisons of the country, while the number of guards has fallen by 18%.
Ill-treatment and violence
In just six years, the prison population in Denmark has jumped by 19%, which represents an occupancy rate exceeding 100%.
And according to national statistics, by 2025, there will be a shortage of up to 1,000 places in the kingdom's prisons.
Several international organizations have also expressed their concern about the fate of these detainees.
A US State Department report last year noted several cases of mistreatment and violence against prisoners in Kosovar prisons.
This Tuesday, December 21, the Ministers of Justice of the two countries will visit the Gjilan penitentiary, located about fifty kilometers from the capital Pristina.
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