Austrian prisons are full of foreigners. About a third of prisoners are third-country nationals. Minister of the Interior Gerhard Karner (ÖVP) wants to ‘move’ this group abroad. A possible model for this is Denmark, which wants to operate a prison in the Balkans.
Denmark is about to operate a prison in Kosovo. All third-country nationals in prison, and not just people with Kosovo citizenship who are then obliged to leave the country, should be accommodated there. In the first step, up to 300 people from the Danish prison system are to be brought there. The Danes are taking over an existing prison in Kosovo and structurally adapting it. Prison conditions must correspond 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 Kosovo parliament. The staff on site will come from both Denmark and Kosovo. The cooperation is not only intended to decongest Denmark’s overcrowded prisons, but also to send a message to foreign criminals, as people have to serve their sentences in a third country and be repatriated from there to their home country. 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 spoke with the Danish Minister of Justice about this project. The ÖVP also wants such a model for Austria. The idea is part of Chancellor Karl Nehammer’s Austria plan. “I have had intensive discussions with the Danish Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard. Denmark has an agreement with the government in Pristina that allows it to operate detention centers in Kosovo. We want to promote an agreement like this for Austria, based on the Danish model.”
Such a project would potentially involve a third of all prisoners in Austria! As of May 1, 33 percent (3,093) of all prisoners (9,482) were third-country nationals. The Green-led Ministry of Justice also calls the high share of foreigners a challenge. The aim is to enforce transfer to the country of origin as soon as possible after the end of the sentence. The foreign prisoners mainly come from Romania, the successor states of the former Yugoslavia, Hungary, Nigeria and Turkey.
In Austria there is currently the possibility of so-called transfer agreements. A transfer of prisoners from the Austrian prison system to other countries is possible on the basis of multilateral (EU) and bilateral contracts or reciprocity. There are treaty bases for transfers and a fundamental obligation to cooperate with seventy countries. In any case, a transfer may not infringe the ECHR. When it comes to deportations, about 41 percent of people have at least one criminal conviction. Currently, deportations only take place after the sentence has been served.
Early discharge upon return home
However, criminals may be released from prison early if the convict voluntarily returns to their country of origin. This decision rests with the Ministry of Justice. To be able to operate an entire prison in a third country you only need a bilateral agreement, says constitutional lawyer Bernd-Christian Funk in an interview with the ‘Krone’. “It is of course important to ensure that human rights are respected. Such cooperation with a state that, for example, uses torture or the death penalty would not be possible.”
Source: Krone
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
