Belgium has started discussions to transfer prisoners to a renovated prison in Kosovo starting with 2027, a solution inspired by the model already applied by Denmark.
Belgium wants to send prisoners to Kosovo after the Danish photo model: Archive
The Belgian Minister of Justice, Annelies Verlinden, said on Saturday that Belgium is looking for solutions for the serious problem of overcrowding of penitentiaries and that among variants are the renting of places in a Kosovo prison, Agerpres informs.
“We inspire ourselves from the model of Denmark, who intends to send prisoners in a renovated prison from Kosovo since 2027. This is a way we explore, and initial contacts have been started on the spot.“Verlinden said in an interview with Le Sir.
The new coalition government led by the Flemish nationalist Bart de Wever has allocated to the Ministry of Justice an additional budget of 150 million euros in 2025 to support the necessary reforms, including to combat overcrowding and personnel deficit in the penitentiary system.
Belgium penitentiaries are already overloaded
Currently, Belgium has about 11,000 places in prisons, but the number of prisoners exceeds 13,000. In addition, about 4,000 other sentences for sentences up to three years are waiting to be incarcerated. Last year, Belgium was forced to rent places in the penitentiaries in the Netherlands, but they are already full.
Logistical and administrative obstacles
However, the Belgian minister pointed out that the transfer plan involves many challenges: it takes “realism“, As it is not just about renting some spaces. It takes “Resources, infrastructure, personal and an integral approach, especially about what happens to foreign prisoners after the punishment”, Stress Annelies Verlinden.
Kosovo, a new destination for foreign prisoners
Other European countries also take into account similar solutions. Last year, Austria announced that he wants to transfer the non-community offenders to Kosovo's penitentiaries, inspiring also from the agreement signed by Denmark.
In 2021, Kosovo agreed to rent 300 penitentiary cells, in exchange for an annual payment of 15 million euros and financial support for green energy projects. In these cells, criminals convicted in Denmark who are not citizens of the European Union will be incarcerated, and during the detention the Danish laws will be applied.
