The Ministry of Justice intensifies the deportation of foreign prisoners and confirms that this process is less costly than imprisonment.
Austria has recorded its highest number of prisoner transfers abroad since records began in 2013, with hundreds of foreign inmates sent back to their home countries in 2025, according to official data.
During the year, 208 prisoners were transferred to serve the remainder of their sentences in their countries of origin. In addition, 394 detainees were deported directly from prisons after receiving entry or residence bans. The Ministry of Justice said the policy aims to reduce overcrowding in Austrian prisons and improve rehabilitation prospects by allowing prisoners to serve their time closer to home.
The ministry, led by the Social Democratic Party, described the transfers as a long-term strategy that will be expanded further and is included in the three-party coalition’s government program. The new figures were first reported by Vorarlberger Nachrichten.
Most transfer requests involve European Union and other European countries. Approval does not depend on the type of crime but on how much of the sentence remains to be served. Transfers are only granted if a significant portion of the sentence is still outstanding and early release is not imminent. The legal basis comes from an EU framework decision, the Council of Europe convention on prisoner transfers, and several bilateral agreements.
People who receive entry or residence bans can be released after serving half of their sentence if they leave Austria immediately. In 2025, this applied to hundreds of cases, continuing a relatively stable trend seen since 2008. The ministry said transfer costs vary but are generally lower than keeping inmates in Austrian prisons, with expenses covered by the requesting country until handover and funded in Austria through the justice budget.
Austria can also accept its own citizens back from foreign prisons, but the Ministry of Justice does not keep centralized statistics on such cases because they are handled by regional courts. This means no single nationwide total is available for Austrian prisoners returning from abroad.