– There are really many from a broad crowd of especially Eastern European countries who are serving time in Danish prisons. And who, according to the EU rules that apply, should actually serve time at home, he says and continues:
– It is of course completely unacceptable, at the same time as the Danish prison system is under pressure that they take up resources, when in reality it is their home country that should be responsible for the task.
In a parliamentary response to Morten Messerschmidt, the Ministry of Justice reviews 81 cases of EU citizens sentenced to deportation serving sentences.
It shows that it is far from just EU citizens from, for example, Romania – where there have historically been major problems with sending prisoners to – who are in Danish prisons. The Netherlands, Poland, Croatia and Lithuania also fill.
Prisoners who have not been deported should serve time in their home country if the sentence is more than four and a half months’ imprisonment. The total number is therefore apparently higher.
– It is completely grotesque that you have an agreement that should ensure that they serve time in their home country, but where their home country will not accept them.
– That is why we also say that the government must take this up at the very highest level in the EU at an intergovernmental conference, says Morten Messerschmidt.
In a reply, Minister of Justice Nick Hækkerup (S) writes that he also finds it unsatisfactory that more prisoners do not serve their sentences in their home country.
– These are people who have turned their backs on Danish society. Our penitentiary must not spend precious resources on them, he writes.
He further states that the government is working to make it less attractive to sit in Danish prisons, so that more EU citizens – and other foreigners for that matter – can be transferred to their home country.
Most recently, the government has proposed, among other things, that deportation convicts lose the opportunity to be released on probation.
– This should help the inmates to be sent out of the country faster. In addition, we are working on optimizing the case processing in the cases, so that we reach the goal of far more cases, the minister writes.
The ministry explains that there are a number of obstacles to repatriating EU citizens. The inmates must often give consent, and it must be included whether the inmate’s affiliation and opportunity for rehabilitation is best in Denmark or the home country.
And then – as has been the problem with Romania – the conditions for the prisoners must be acceptable.
Source: The Nordic Page