More Deportations and Prison Cells in Iceland

The quoted piece, authored by Iceland’s Minister of Justice, Þorbjörg Sigríður Gunnlaugsdóttir, presents data on the rising number of deportations—including those of individuals who have committed crimes—as well as an increase in the capacity of the country’s penal facilities.

The core message of the text concerns the need for a more appropriate government response to the rise in crime and illegal immigration in Iceland.

It was published on Vísir on November 8, and in it she explains the government’s new deportation rules and its plans for the country’s overcrowded prisons.

In June, she writes, Alþingi amended the Act on the Execution of Sentences. The temporary measure lets the state deport foreign prisoners after they have served one-third of their sentence instead of one-half, with a ban on re-entry to Iceland and, where relevant, all 27 Schengen states. So far, she reports, about 40 offenders have been deported under the new rules.

Gunnlaugsdóttir presents the change as a way to create capacity while removing offenders “with few ties to the country.” The bill passed without opposition support—the entire opposition abstained, the Center Party among them. The authorization is temporary.

She also describes the construction plans. Ground has been broken for a new high-security prison at Stóra-Hraun, which she calls the largest construction project in the history of Icelandic prison administration. The first phase will open 56 places in Árborg, and a decision to enlarge the building by 30 places beyond the previous government’s plan will bring the total to 127.

She writes that every prison place is full and that some sentences have effectively expired:

“Every prison place is full, and some sentences have effectively expired because there is nowhere to serve them.”

The government has increased funding for the Prison and Probation Administration by 230 million ISK a year, a permanent increase rather than a one-off.

Gunnlaugsdóttir also gives the latest figures. In the first nine months of the year, the Repatriation and Escort Unit escorted 271 people out of the country. Of these, 89 cases involved criminal proceedings, prisoner transfers, or extraditions, and 40 were foreign offenders deported after serving their sentences. Illegal residence was the largest single category at the National Police Commissioner’s Department of Deportations, at 117 cases.

In September, the ministry published a separate bill to give police more tools against organized crime, which has been growing in Iceland.

She frames the choice as “action versus discussion”:

“The government is taking action and following a clear policy that is proving effective.”

The new prison at Stóra-Hraun is the largest single milestone, she writes, and the deportation of foreign prisoners is one part of that policy.

Source: Vísir (in Icelandic)