(MENAFN- Gulf Times) Norwegian Justice Minister Anders Anundsen and Dutch Secretary of State Fred Teeven signed an agreement yesterday that could allow Norwegian convicts to serve their terms in the Netherlands as of September.
If approved by the parliaments of both countries, the agreement would enable Norway, which suffers from a lack of prisons, to take advantage of the Netherlands' oversupply.
The agreement was signed in the northeastern Dutch city of Veenhuizen, home to a prison which would be declared Norwegian sovereign territory.
The prison would come under Norwegian authority and that country's laws would apply, the Dutch ministry of justice reported from The Hague.
The prison's personnel, however, would be Dutch, with 239 jobs to be retained at the prison facility.
Norway plans to send 242 prisoners to the Netherlands, which has hosted prisoners from Belgium since 2009.
The agreement has triggered a lawsuit, however.
Dutch prisoners who currently enjoy countryside views and can cook their own food are suing the government over the deal.
Relatives of the Norwegian inmates are also angry at the multi-million euro deal for 242 of them to be transferred to another country hundreds of kilometres away.
Inmates at the Norgerhaven prison near Assen in the northern Netherlands would have to forfeit the privileges of long-term prisoners if they are transferred.
They can currently grow vegetables, keep chickens, cook their own food, gaze at the scenic Dutch countryside and have a generous daily exercise regime.
Dutch media have labelled them "luxury" cells.
The prisoners also have their own "hobby space", can choose what colour to paint a wall of their cells and have private 55-channel television, Dutch media reported.
Now, at least 17 long-term prisoners, serving sentences of between 10 years to life for crimes including murder, have taken the Dutch justice ministry to court, their lawyer Hettie Cremers told AFP.
"They do not want to be moved from one place to the other," said Cremers, who expects a Dutch court to rule on the matter on Friday.
Of particular importance is the prison's countryside view, which "can make a huge difference between keeping or cutting off a small connection with the outside world, especially when serving a life sentence", the lawyer said.
In Norway, prisoners and the wardens' union are also opposed to the move.
"We're very sceptical about the agreement because it violates several fundamental principles, primarily family proximity to the prisoner during detention," said Hanne Hamsund, who heads an organisation representing Norwegian prisoners' families.
"The agreement undermines families' ability and capacity to maintain regular contact with the prisoner," she said, although the deal should exclude prisoners with children.
Norwegian authorities have pointed out that the distance from Oslo to the north of the country is greater than to the Netherlands.
"Not everyone lives in Oslo," said Hamsund. "So when a family member is detained in the Netherlands, you have to go to Oslo, then get a plane to Amsterdam then take a three-hour bus journey.
"This represents a considerable cost and forces loved ones to leave work for a few days just to make a prison visit."
Dutch justice ministry spokesman Jaap Oosterveer told AFP the ‚¬25mn ($28mn) deal would pay the wages of 239 prison officials.
The Netherlands has predicted that around 700 of its prison cells will become vacant over the next five years and has housed 550 Belgian convicts in southern city Tilburg since February 2010.
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