Norway has sent a group of inmates to a jail in the Netherlands because its own prisons are too full.



“The first prisoners have arrived,” Karl Hillesland, the Norwegian head of Norgerhaven prison in the Netherlands said on Tuesday.

Due to lack of space, more than 1,000 inmates in Norway are waiting to be placed in prisons, where they are often assigned to individual cells. To solve the problem, Norway has leased Norgerhaven prison from the Netherlands.

But the move has dismayed many Dutch inmates, who were transferred to another facility despite fighting to stay put in their “luxurious cells”, as Dutch media have described them.

About 25 Norwegian inmates made up the first prisoner transfer on Tuesday, ahead of a formal handover ceremony between the two countries’ justice ministers on Wednesday.

At Norgerhaven, inmates serving long sentences can plant vegetables in the garden, raise chickens, cook and enjoy the pastoral surroundings from their cells.

“It’s a very cushy prison, a pleasant prison,” Kenneth Vimme, who is serving a 17-year sentence for murder and who volunteered for a transfer, told Norwegian public television NRK. But he complained that inmates transferring would get fewer TV channels, and was dismayed that not all prisoners were going of their own free will, which he feared could cause tensions.

Of the 112 Norwegian prisoners being transferred in a first phase, 79 were volunteers. Norgerhaven will eventually host 242 prisoners from Norway.

An association representing the families of inmates has protested against the transfer abroad and criticised the way in which it was done. “To serve your sentence so far from home hurts your chances of rehabilitation in society and the possibility of family visits,” Hanne Hamsund, the head of the association, told AFP.

“With the trip and a night at a hotel, it will cost about 5,000 kroner (£390) per person to visit a family member,” she said, regretting the lack of financial assistance from the Norwegian state.

The inmates will serve their sentences under the Norwegian penal system, which is known for being liberal. They will be under the supervision of a Norwegian prison director, but the rest of the staff will be Dutch. Prisoners will return to Norway before their release.

The Netherlands has also rented out prison space to Belgium.