Denmark plans to rent 300 prison cells in Kosovo for inmates from third countries coming to the end of their sentences.

Danish Minister of Justice Nick Haekkerup announced the plan on Wednesday, after negotiating an agreement with the Danish’s People’s Party and the Conservatives.

In the announcement, the minister said that, among other things, they had agreed to rent prison places in Kosovo to deport convicts from third countries.

“The deported criminals can now serve their sentences abroad and it is no secret that there are space problems in Danish prisons,” the Danish People’s Party’s legal policy spokesman, Peter Skaarup, said.

The Ministry of Justice in Kosovo announced during the day that it has pledged to release a correctional facility for 300 prisoners from Denmark.

According to them, the criminals will not be of high risk.

“The Ministry of Justice is committed to the release of a correctional facility with a capacity for three hundred convicts, who will be brought from the Kingdom of Denmark. The convicts who will be transferred to this institution will not be of high risk”, the statement said.

As compensation for this, Kosovo will benefit 210 million euros.

“As compensation for this, the Republic of Kosovo benefits 210 million euros, which will be dedicated to capital investments, in particular for renewable energy”, said further the Ministry of Justice.

This project seeks to ease prison overcrowding and expand Denmark’s prison estate by 326 places between 2022 and 2025, the Justice Ministry explained.

“We will be short of up to 1,000 places in the prison estate by 2025,” minister Hækkerup said in the statement.

“Under the agreement, it is agreed to rent 300 prison places in Kosovo and expand the prison capacity in Denmark by several hundred places,” his statement added.

The signing of the letter of intent, the expression of will, between the two parties, will be achieved on Monday, respectively, on December 20 of this year after the visit of the Danish ministers in the Republic of Kosovo. The agreement is expected to be fully implemented over a ten-year period.

Some Danish parties have expressed strong opposition to the agreement.

The Radical Left said it would not support the agreement on the terms given and withdrew from the negotiations.

It said Denmark had an abusive past with renting prison cells abroad, and Kosovo’s prison system was seen as corrupt and lacking in trained staff.

“Norway previously had a very abusive agreement to rent prisons in the Netherlands. We are very concerned that we in Denmark do not want to take responsibility for our own prisoners. Kosovo’s prison system has been criticized for corruption, violence between prisoners and poorly trained staff,” Samira Nawa of the party said.

According to TV media outlet nyheder.tv2.dk Denmark’s prison population has grown by 19 per cent since 2015, reaching more than 4,000 inmates at the start of 2021 and exceeding capacity.

Renting prison cells in other countries is nothing new, however. Other Scandinavian countries, such as Norway, have previously rented prison cells abroad, in the Netherlands, after the latter reported empty prison cells.