Not much research has been done in the Netherlands on the ways in which Dutch women experience and survive a prison sentence abroad. The research underlying the present article focused on Dutch female prisoners in foreign countries, using an ethnographic research method. The article looks at the prison experiences of Dutch mulas in Peru and their strategies of survival. The ways in which these women react to their detention can be traced back to existing literature on the importation theory and the deprivation theory. The article also examines the various coping strategies that are used to survive a prison sentence abroad. These strategies appear to be related both to the life experiences of the women (importation theory) and the experienced prison environment (deprivation theory).