There are mixed feelings on the streets of Tartu. Friends Liis and Kristiina have different views on the issue, and Liis is sceptical that up to 600 inmates from Sweden will be sent to the prison in the city.
And then their relatives come and visit them, that's not good, says Liis, but Kristiina says that she has had people she trusts explain to her how monitoring and the rules will work.
It won't be bad or more unsafe, she says.
The families come
Karl is sitting in a van and does not want to be in the picture.
It seems good on paper, but I don't know, he says, adding that the inmates' families will probably also be moving around Tartu, and that's not good.
And are tax evaders or murderers going to prison? Karl wonders.
Another man, at a gas station, has lots of opinions, but doesn't want to be photographed or give his name.
"We don't want them here, people are pissed off. Take care of your problems, you have to solve them yourself, you see what immigration has done to Sweden, it's not like it was 40 years ago," he says.
Can be torn apart
Sandra Laur, a politician for the Christian Democratic Ismaa party, recently spoke to SVT Nyheter and asked Sweden to “take care of your own garbage.” If the opposition, with conservative, nationalist Ekre and Christian Democratic Ismaa, wins the election next year, they have threatened to tear up the agreement.
An online opinion poll conducted in June this year, commissioned by the Institute for Social Studies at the University of Tartu, shows that 54 percent are against or would rather not have Swedish prisoners in Tartu. When asked whether the agreement should be terminated by the next government, 48 percent answered yes or are inclined to think that it should be.
