The Flemish nationalist and right-wing N-VA party wants to build a prison in Kosovo for undocumented migrants from Belgium, MP Theo Francken said on Thursday. The proposal draws inspiration from Denmark, which has had such a cooperation with Kosovo for some time.
Sending undocumented people who have to serve a prison sentence to another country to serve their sentence. For Francken, this is an idea that fits perfectly with his party's longstanding calls for an end to asylum.
To tackle prison overcrowding, Denmark is paying €210 million to Kosovo over 10 years to accommodate approximately 300 detainees who were staying in Denmark irregularly. Francken sees it as a way of relieving the burden on prisons, and the proposal is included in the N-VA's election manifesto.
Professor of criminology An-Sofie Vanhouche (VUB), however, told VRT that the idea is not yet fully developed even in Denmark. "The prison itself has already been built. However, many matters still need to be arranged and much remains unclear."
Not feasible
In short: while constructing a building is quite simple, transferring people to Kosovo is not. "Detainees do not want to simply be transferred to another country. Just because they have been convicted does not mean they do not retain their rights."
Additionally, many lawyers do not consider it feasible that human rights would be guaranteed in a Kosovar prison. While the "guarantee of prison quality" is included in the agreement that the countries have made, it is very difficult to monitor this; Kosovo does not belong to the European Union and is not even recognised as an independent state by several EU countries.
Additionally, the question of responsibility for the detainees remains. "Denmark is still responsible, because it concerns people who have been convicted in Denmark and should serve a sentence in Denmark. How that works for detainees on another territory is still a big question," Vanhouche said.
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For Belgium, however, this is not a realistic proposal. "It is clearly a long-term project [in Denmark] and even then it is not certain whether it will succeed. That is why it is not a realistic proposal for Belgium at all," she said.
"There are many more problems involved than initially thought, so it is definitely not a solution that is as feasible as proposed by N-VA."
