Kosovo has agreed to rent 300 prison cells to Denmark to ease overcrowding in the Scandinavian country’s jails.
Denmark will pay an annual fee of €15m (£12.8m) for an initial period of five years, and will also help fund green energy in the country.
The rented cells are meant to house convicted criminals from non-EU countries due to be deported from Denmark after their sentences.
Danish laws would apply to any prisoners in the rented cells.
Kosovo has between 700 and 800 unused prison spaces.
The two governments signed a “political declaration” of intent on Monday which will run for an initial period of five years, a joint statement said.
Those sent to Kosovo would not be high-risk inmates, Kosovo’s Justice Minister Albulena Haxhiu said. Anyone convicted of terror offences or with a terminal illness will not be sent to Kosovo.
The agreement will need to be ratified in Kosovo’s parliament by a two-thirds majority.
The idea of exporting inmates is not new in Europe, as Norway and Belgium have previously rented prison cells in the Netherlands.
