Foreign nationals made up 42% of arrests in 2025
Monday 7th September 2026 on 09:01 in
Iceland
Nearly 40% of people arrested in Iceland between 2019 and June 2026 were foreign nationals, according to figures reported by mbl.is. The data comes from Justice Minister Þorbjörg Sigríður Gunnlaugsdóttir’s response to a parliamentary question from Independence Party MP Diljá Mist Einarsdóttir.
Einarsdóttir requested annual figures for people with foreign citizenship who were arrested from 2019 to 2025, broken down by offence type and nationality. She also asked what proportion of all arrests each year involved foreign nationals, with the figures similarly divided by offence type.
The Justice Ministry said it had requested information from the office of the National Police Commissioner. The available police statistics can distinguish between people with Icelandic and foreign citizenship, but do not break arrests down by nationality and offence type.
“It is of course unacceptable that we do not receive answers to the questions we ask,” Einarsdóttir told Morgunblaðið. She said the figures that were available showed an unusually high proportion of foreign nationals among those arrested.
The ministry noted that citizenship does not indicate whether a person lives in Iceland. The figures may therefore include tourists and other people staying in the country for shorter periods.
Einarsdóttir said it was important to know who was committing offences and argued that the figures should be broken down by nationality. She said she would continue seeking such information, which she believes the public has a right to receive.
She said information on the nationalities of people who commit offences was not collected systematically, despite such data being collected in neighbouring countries and elsewhere in Europe. In her view, political leadership was needed to change that.
The ministry’s response also included the number and proportion of people arrested through June 24, 2026. The highest number of arrests during the period was recorded in 2019, when 4,964 people were arrested, including 1,837 foreign nationals.
The second-highest number was recorded in 2025, when 4,822 people were arrested, including 2,034 foreign nationals. Foreign nationals accounted for the largest share of arrests in 2024, at 43%. They also accounted for 43% of arrests in 2026, although those figures only cover the period through June 24.