Asylum seekers and refugees in Denmark
Recent stories
Refugees to be selected on 'integratability'
The government's think-tank on integration has proposed that Denmark should select its quota of 500 UN refugees on the basis of their ability to successfully integrate into society.
7 October 2004 (76 words)
Union backs tougher refugee policy
A poll of members of SiD (the General Workers' Union) has revealed a majority in favour of a tougher refugee policy.
23 August 2004 (108 words)
Haarder fights it out with the DPP
On integration minister Bertel Haarder being handed a broader cabinet role, to include development, the DFP saw it as a chance to pressure the government to accelerate the return of asylum seekers and to link immigration policy to Third World Aid.
3 August 2004 (140 words)
Integration minister plans compulsory language classes
Integration Minister Bertel Haarder supports a plan to make language teaching obligatory for all asylum seekers and immigrants.
1 June 2004 (83 words)
Resistance to refugee proposals
In January, the government proposed a slew of highly restrictive measures aimed at tightening immigration policy and reducing the number of refugees.
8 October 2002 (192 words)
Death and hunger strikes as pressure mounts on Iraqi refugees
In February, the immigration authorities changed its policy to say that Iraqis in government-controlled parts of Iraq no longer automatically qualified for asylum.
29 August 2002 (138 words)
Cash incentives for Afghans to accept voluntary repatriation
In August, the government announced cash bonuses for around 1300 Afghan asylum seekers if they agreed to return home by 1 November.
26 August 2002 (94 words)
Young Iraqi suicide
In February, a 17-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker committed suicide in a Red Cross centre in Copenhagen, after his request for asylum had been rejected.
11 February 2002 (80 words)
Afghan youth saved from suicide attempt
On December 28, five days before he was due to be deported, 16-year-old Zafar Mohammad, a refugee from Afghanistan, set himself on fire outside the Gribskov refugee centre.
28 January 2002 (203 words)
Thousands protest slashing international aid
In March, tens of thousands of Danes protested in Copenhagen at the 2002 budget which slashed spending on immigration services and development aid.
11 January 2002 (117 words)
Issues in the November general election
The Danish People's Party (DPP), led by the 'iron lady' Pia Kjaersgaard, made sweeping gains in the November 2001 general election, emerging as the third largest party in the country.
1 January 2002 (942 words)
Asylum-crime link results in new legislation
The Aliens Act has been amended to make it easier to imprison asylum seekers convicted of a criminal offence.
1 October 2001 (97 words)
Local authorities discard torture victims
Increasing numbers of local authorities are telling refugees who are the victims of torture that they must pay for their own therapeutic help.
1 October 2001 (46 words)
Immigration and citizenship rules to be revised
In his New Year's speech, the prime minister promised to bring in stricter immigration controls.
1 March 2000 (243 words)
Government committee investigates fate of deported Iranian
A government committee is investigating the disappearance of an Iranian who was deported from Denmark in October 1998 and went missing after being arrested and interrogated, released, and then rearrested in Teheran.
1 July 1999 (111 words)
Row about discrimination in social security payments to refugees continues
Humanitarian organisations and statisticians have criticised the Danish foreign ministry for misleading UNHCR about the implications of a new immigration and integration law for refugees.
1 July 1999 (108 words)
Somaliland refuses to accept deportees forcibly expelled
The Danish Peoples Party has called for all financial aid to Somaliland to be stopped after the authorities in the new republic declared that it will no longer take deportees unless they return voluntarily.
1 July 1999 (75 words)
New immigration and integration legislation criticised
The new immigration and integration law discriminates against refugees by offering them 20 per cent less in social security payments than that afforded to Danish citizens.
1 March 1999 (199 words)
Trades union tie language requirement to unemployment benefit
According to one of Denmark's largest trades unions, many immigrants on unemployment benefit are so bad at speaking Danish that they cannot hold down a job.
1 March 1999 (106 words)
Uncooperative asylum detainees punished with diet of bread and water
Asylum-seekers who refuse to give information on their identity to the immigration board are being placed on a 'bread and water cure'.
1 March 1999 (172 words)
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