# taz.de -- Migration policy in Denmark: Restrictive and denying | |
> Denmark demonstrates with its migration legislation mainly one thing: | |
> rejection. Migrants and refugees are poised to feel that they are | |
> unwanted. | |
Bild: Refugees in Denmark on their way to Sweden in the fall of 2015 | |
In recent years, Denmark has introduced increasingly restrictive policies | |
regarding migrants and asylum seekers. A measure that received widespread | |
attention and criticism was the January 2016 amendment to the Aliens Act | |
allowing police to search asylum seekers and seize cash and valuables worth | |
more than 1,300 Euros. Other controversial proposals have included the | |
temporary postponement of the right to family reunification, new | |
restrictions on the ability to obtain a permanent residence permit, and the | |
shortening of the length of temporary residence permits. | |
A November 2015 amendment to the Aliens Act concerns immigration-related | |
detention. The amendment reportedly provides “special circumstances“ for | |
detaining asylum seekers, including the detention of asylum seekers who are | |
part of “massive arrivals,“ and weakens the judicial review of detention. | |
The Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights commented about the | |
law, “I am concerned that the possibility of making increased use of | |
detention in specific circumstances, combined with the elimination of | |
important legal safeguards regarding detention, could lead to detention | |
being used disproportionately and indiscriminately in respect of | |
asylum-seekers, in contradiction with Article 5 of the ECHR which protects | |
the right to liberty.“ | |
Denmark has also enforced laws that punish citizens who provide basic forms | |
of assistance to undocumented non-citizens. In March 2016, a high-profile | |
Danish advocate for children’s rights was prosecuted and fined 3,000 Euros | |
for helping transport Syrian refugees who sought to walk from Germany to | |
Sweden. Under the Aliens Act, transporting undocumented non-citizens is a | |
crime of human smuggling. According to police statistics, almost 280 people | |
were charged under this provision during September 2015 – February 2016. | |
In average 92 non-citizens held in immigration detention daily in 2014, 86 | |
in 2012, and 65 in 2011. As of April 2016, Denmark used three facilities | |
for the purposes of long-term immigration detention—two dedicated | |
facilities and one prison with a specialized section. The longest standing | |
immigration facility is the Ellebaek Prison and Probation Establishment for | |
Asylum-seekers and Others Deprived of their Liberty (formerly Sandholm | |
Prison), which as of 2014 had a standard capacity of 118 (and a surge | |
capacity of 137). In early 2016, Denmark opened a new facility at | |
Vridsløselille Prison, a former prison now used exclusively for immigration | |
related reasons, which has a capacity of 240. Reportedly as of March 2016 | |
rejected asylum seekers were locked in their cells at Vridsløselille Prison | |
for 23 hours a day because the facility lacked the necessary personnel to | |
ensure that detainees could securely walk freely around the facility. The | |
country also has a specialized 10-persons unit in Aabenraa Prison for | |
holding non-citizens on immigration charges. All these facilities are run | |
by the Danish Prison and Probation Service. | |
The number of persons who were ordered by Danish authorities to leave the | |
country and subsequently left (including both “voluntary“ and forced | |
returns) increased sharply from 455 in 2011 to 1,375 in 2012. In 2015, the | |
total number of persons returned was 2,655, of whom 2,480 were deported; a | |
total of 1,400 persons were returned in 2014, of whom 1,315 were deported. | |
On the other hand, according to the Danish Refugee Council, Denmark | |
“repatriated“ 323 persons in 2015, 320 in 2014 and 393 in 2013. Out the | |
total number of persons repatriated in 2015, 75 were from Turkey, 59 from | |
Bosnia and Herzegovina, and 20 from Serbia. It is not clear how the figures | |
on repatriation and return relate to each other. | |
Despite its restrictive approach to immigration, Denmark does not face the | |
same migratory pressures as its neighbors. In 2014, 14,680 people applied | |
for international protection in Denmark, compared to 20,935 in 2015. In | |
2013, Denmark apprehended 395 undocumented persons and only 515 in 2014. | |
These are among the lowest apprehension rates in Europe, with only Latvia | |
and Luxembourg reporting lower total apprehensions in 2014. | |
15 Dec 2016 | |
## AUTOREN | |
Global Detention Project | |
## TAGS | |
migControl | |
## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA |