Denmark has announced a project to rent 300 cells in Kosovo for prisoners who are due to be deported at the end of their sentences.

The Danish Ministry of Justice said that this project will reduce the overcrowding in the prison, and will provide 326 new places for prisoners between the years 2022 and 2025.

Last year, 350 prisoners were to be deported from Denmark, following their sentences.

The number of prisoners in Denmark has increased by 19% since 2015, reaching more than 4,000 prisoners in early 2021, and that number exceeds the capacity of prisons, according to official statistics.

During that time, the number of prisoners dropped by 18% in the Scandinavian country of 5.8 million people, where prisoners, sentenced to at least five years, are serving their sentences in what is known as an "open prison."

"We will have a shortage of 1,000 cells by 2025," Justice Minister Nick Hicrop said in a statement.

"Under the agreement, it was agreed to lease 300 prison cells in Kosovo, and to expand the capacity of prisons in Denmark by several hundred cells," he added.

Kosovo had 1,642 prisoners by 2020, which is 97% of its incarceration capacity, according to the University of London's Global Prison publication.

Norway and Belgium, for example, have previously leased cells in the Netherlands, according to AFP.