Denmark to rent out 300 Kosovo prison cells

Denmark will rent 300 Kosovo prison cells to ease overcrowding in the country’s prisons.

Kosovo will earn €15m ($16.9m) per year for a period of five years. Denmark will also help Kosovo in its green energy sector, human rights, and Democracy.

The prison cells will keep convicts from non-EU countries after they are deported from Denmark. Danish laws will apply to all criminals kept in the prisons.

The declaration was made on Monday via a joint statement by the two countries. Kosovo is set to receive €210m ($236m) over the next 10 years, and will get to establish a working green energy sector.

With the move, Denmark has sent a “clear signal” to illegal immigrants. Their “future does not lie in Denmark.”

It will be a groundbreaking agreement that will concretely create space in our prisons and ease the pressure on our prison officers at the same time as it also sends a clear signal to third-country nationals sentenced to deportation: Your future does not lie in Denmark, and you must therefore not serve time here.

Minister of Justice Nick Hækkerup said in a statement.

Inmates will start arriving in early 2023. As “energy consumption in Kosovo is four times higher than the EU average,” the development of a green energy sector will be highly beneficial for the young country and it gets a lot out of this agreement.