Under Swedish law, an alien convicted of an offence punishable by imprisonment may be sentenced to deportation if there is reason to assume that the alien will reoffend, or if the offence is so serious that the alien should not be permitted to stay. Upon release, the alien may be held in immigration detention for the purpose of enforcing the deportation order. While detention is generally subject to maximum time limits, criminal deportees face indefinite detention. This exceptional treatment raises questions about the proper purpose of immigration detention and respect for the right to liberty. This paper investigates and critically analyses the Swedish regulatory framework for the detention of criminal deportees from a human rights perspective. It reveals how the alien’s criminal record and assumptions about the risk for reoffending play adecisive role both in the decision to detain and the length of detention. The right to liberty, which protects the individual against illegal and arbitrary detention, does not prohibit the use of immigration detention for crime prevention purposes, provided it is subsidiary to the primary purpose of enforcing the deportation order. Administrative detention is, however, arguably an inappropriate tool for the prevention of crime. Moreover, the Swedish legislation lacks a coherent and satisfactory basis. A thorough enquiry into the use of immigration detention as a crime prevention measure is necessary, to analyse data on the detention of criminal deportees and examine how criminal law measures could be more appropriately used to counter serious threats to public order, without unnecessary encroachment on the right to liberty.

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