UK To Modernize Albanian Prisons To Return Albanians Serving Sentences In UK - Ministry

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 24th May, 2023) The United Kingdom and Albania have signed an agreement under which the Albanian prisoners will be returned to their homeland and the UK will provide assistance to the country in modernizing its prisons, the UK Ministry of Justice (MOJ) said on Wednesday.

"The UK and Albanian governments have agreed a ground-breaking arrangement that will see hundreds of Albanian prisoners returned to their home country in exchange for UK support to help modernise the Albanian prison system," the ministry said in a statement.

As part of the new agreement, 200 Albanians serving sentences of four years or more in England and Wales will be returned to their country, where they will serve the remainder of their sentences, the ministry noted.

"It currently costs nearly 40,000 Pounds ($49,478) a year to house each prisoner in England and Wales. The total cost of the deal for the MOJ is expected to be in the region of 8 million pounds over 2 years, equating to 32 pounds per prisoner per day, compared to 109 pounds per day to house them in prisons in England and Wales," the statement added.

As of March 31, almost 1,400 Albanian prisoners are being held in prisons across England and Wales, the statement read.