Model Denmark

Criminals should serve their sentences abroad

Will there soon be a bilateral "prison agreement"? The ÖVP wants to push the matter forward.

(Bild: P. Huber)

Austria's prisons are full of foreigners. Around a third of inmates are third-country nationals. Interior Minister Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) wants to "relocate" this group abroad. One possible model for this is Denmark, which wants to operate a prison in the Balkans.

Denmark is about to start operating a prison in Kosovo. All third-country nationals in prison, not just people with Kosovan citizenship who are then obliged to leave the country, are to be housed there. As a first step, up to 300 people from the Danish prison system are to be transferred there. The Danes are taking an existing prison in Kosovo and adapting it structurally. The prison conditions are to be similar to those in Danish prisons.

Bilateral agreement as legal basis
The legal basis is an agreement between Denmark and Kosovo, which has already been ratified by the Danish side, but not yet by the Kosovan parliament. The local staff will come from both Denmark and Kosovo. The cooperation is not only intended to relieve the overcrowded prisons in Denmark, but also to send a signal to foreign offenders, as people are to serve their sentence in a third country and then be repatriated from there to their home countries. According to Danish calculations, this cooperation should also be cheaper than building a new prison on Danish territory.

Part of Nehammer's Austria plan
During his visit to Denmark last week, Minister Karner discussed this project with the Danish Minister of Justice. The ÖVP also wants a similar model for Austria. The idea is part of Federal Chancellor Karl Nehammer's Austria Plan. "I had intensive talks with the Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard. Denmark has an agreement with the government in Pristina that allows detention facilities to be operated in Kosovo. We want to push ahead with an agreement based on the Danish model for Austria."

Interior Minister Karner wants to push ahead with the project

(Bild: APA/Georg Hochmuth)

Such a project would potentially involve a third of all prison inmates in Austria! As of May 1, 33 percent (3093) of all prison inmates (9482) were third-country nationals. The Green-led Ministry of Justice also describes the high proportion of foreigners as a challenge. They are pushing for the quickest possible transfer to the countries of origin after the end of the sentence. The foreign inmates primarily come from Romania, the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, Hungary, Nigeria and Turkey.

(Bild: Krone Kreativ, Adobe Stock)

In Austria, there is currently the possibility of so-called transfer agreements. The transfer of inmates from the Austrian prison system to other countries is possible on the basis of multilateral (EU) and bilateral agreements or reciprocity. There are contractual bases for transfers and a basic obligation to cooperate with 70 countries. In any case, a transfer must not violate the ECHR. Around 41 percent of people who are deported have at least one criminal conviction. Deportations currently only take place after the sentence has been served.

Earlier release on return home
However, it is possible for offenders to be released from prison early if the convicted person voluntarily returns to their country of origin. This decision lies with the Ministry of Justice. In order to operate an entire prison in a third country, all that is needed is a bilateral agreement, says constitutional lawyer Bernd-Christian Funk in an interview with the "Krone" newspaper. "Of course, it is important that care is taken to ensure that human rights are respected. Such cooperation with a state that, for example, tortures or has the death penalty would not be possible."