Denmark: Asylum and immigration (1)
01 January 1991
Denmark: Asylum and immigration
artdoc April=1995
Fewer refugees - no new asylum centres
The Home Office has called on district authorities to cancel
plans to open more asylum centres. The number of refugees seeking
asylum in Denmark during the first six months of 1994 has been
halved compared with the same period in the previous year
(Jyllands-Posten 12.8.94).
East European asylum-seekers - a special problem
Government ministers are undecided whether to open a special
centre for east European asylum-seekers, the aim of which would
be to reduce the amount of crimes committed by asylum-seekers
from Poland, Romania and Russia, and to process their
applications within three days. Throughout August and September
there was much debate about the problem of `criminal asylum-
seekers'. The Danish Red Cross says that criminal asylum-seekers
should be expelled from Denmark within 24-hours, but the home
secretary, Birte Weiss, and Danish Refugee Help have rejected the
proposal for administrative reasons.
The debate about criminality and asylum-seekers has come to a
head amidst growing problems at the Sandholm refugee centre to
which all asylum-seekers are sent upon arrival in Denmark. The
Red Cross say that groups of east European refugees employ mafia-
like methods at the centre and violence has escalated to such an
extent that some refugee children have been placed with foster
parents for their own safety. Another publicised case is that of
a Lithuanian man, previously deported from Denmark and banned
from returning to the country. The 26-year-old man, however,
returned to Denmark via Copenhagen airport where 56 cartons of
smuggled cigarettes were found in his suitcase. The police, it
seems, could not deport him as he had applied for asylum
(Jyllands-Posten 17,25.8.93, 1.9.94).
Asylum-seekers escape from Sandholm
A new escape-proof closed wing costing £3 million is to be built
at Sandholm asylum centre after 17 asylum-seekers managed to
escape from the existing one. Twelve of the escapees were east
Europeans who, in line with a new policy, are now routinely
locked up while their applications are processed if their case
for seeking asylum appears to lack grounds. The remaining five
were Africans whose applications had already been turned down and
who were awaiting deportation. None of the asylum-seekers had
committed crimes in Denmark (Jyllands-Posten 17, 18, 19.9.94).
Serb deportations - not safe
Despite warnings from several human rights organisations, like
the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Denmark
has told the first 25 of more than 120 ethnic Serbs, who arrived
from Croatia at the beginning of the Yugoslavian war, to go home.
In the three years that have passed since then, their old
Yugoslavian passports have become invalid and it is doubtful
whether the Serbs will be allowed back into Croatia where they
lived before the war.
The Directorate for Aliens and the Refugee Council claim,
however, that the Serbs have not been persecuted enough to be
granted asylum in Denmark (Jyllands-Posten 24.9.94).
Progress Party attempts to make immigration central to general
election
In the run-up to the September general election, the far Right
Progress Party issued a set of new demands regarding Denmark's
immigration policy - including sending all Tamils and
Palestinians `back to where they came from'. The Progress Party
also demanded a ban on granting Danish citizenship to immigrants
on the dole, the introduction of a quota system for granting
immigrants' citizenship and the deportation of immigrants who
commit any offence (Jyllands-Posten 2.9.94).
Also during the run-up to the general election, a candidate for
the Freedom Party reported an educational adventure game,
designed to teach pupils about the plight of refugees, to the
police. Soren Esperson described the game, approved by the Danish
Red Cross, as `a serious infringement<