A proposed penal reform presented by the government on Thursday could simplify the deportation process for foreign criminals. This assessment comes from Jens Elo Rytter, a law professor at the University of Copenhagen.

The government’s proposal includes increasing penalties in several areas. Penalties for gross violence and particularly gross violence are set to double, while penalties for gross rape and violence against a partner or child will increase by 50 percent. Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard stated the aim is to emphasize the victim’s perspective and ensure perpetrators face significant consequences.

While the proposal focuses on increasing penalties, its potential impact on deporting foreign criminals is not immediately obvious. The Aliens Act stipulates that foreigners convicted of crimes, even with relatively minor sentences, should be deported unless it violates Denmark’s international obligations, particularly the European Convention on Human Rights regarding private and family life. This convention often plays a crucial role in preventing the deportation of convicted foreigners.

According to Professor Rytter, judges must weigh the convicted person’s human rights against the severity of their crime, and the length of the sentence is a key factor in this assessment. Therefore, the government’s proposed penal reform, with stricter penalties for various offenses, could make it easier to deport convicted foreign nationals.

Separately, Minister for Immigration and Integration Kaare Dybvad has proposed tightening deportation rules, presenting a bill on March 27 that seeks to abolish the tiered system currently in place, which makes deportation more difficult the longer a foreigner has resided in the country. The proposed bill suggests that only international obligations, specifically human rights, should limit deportation when a foreigner receives an unconditional prison sentence.