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SYRIA

Danish authorities criticised for defying own report on Syrian asylum claims

Immigration authorities in Denmark sometimes rule in contradiction of their own report on security in Syria when assessing the asylum claims of refugees, critics say.

Danish authorities criticised for defying own report on Syrian asylum claims
People demonstrate against deportation of Syrians by Denmark in 2021. Photo: Liselotte Sabroe/Ritzau Scanpix

Syrian refugees whose residency in Denmark is revoked because it is deemed safe for them to return to the Damascus area are still at risk of persecution and attacks if they travel home, according to critics of Danish Immigration Service rulings on asylum cases.

Decisions made by the Danish Immigration Service (Udlændingestyrelsen) appear in some cases to be at odds with the immigration authorities’ own report on the security situation in the Middle Eastern country, according to a report by public service broadcaster DR.

The Danish Immigration Service in May released a report detailing the risks that former refugees returning to Syria face — “authorities who continue to arrest, detain, interrogate, torture, extort and kill Syrian refugees,” DR writes.

An EU report published in September and reviewed by the Immigration Service likewise concludes that repatriated Syrians are subjected to interrogation, arrests, rape and torture.

Denmark’s government maintains that the situation in Syria and especially around Damascus has improved enough for refugees to be sent home in some cases.

The Danish Refugee Council, a nonprofit advocacy and humanitarian group, argues that immigration authorities are not sufficiently taking the reports into account in deciding whether to renew Syrian refugees’ residence permits. 

The Immigration Service told DR that its report is used as background information when cases are processed.

The Refugee Appeals Board (Flygtningenævnet) — the part of the Danish Immigration Service that serves as its appeal body — told DR it routinely refers to the report in its decisions.

The Refugee Appeals Board has reversed Immigration Service’s decision to remove Syrian refugees in 49 out of 70 cases that have surfaced between May and September, DR writes. 

READ ALSO: Denmark reverses residence decisions for hundreds of Syrian refugees

“This means that 21 cases at the Refugee Appeals Board will not be overturned despite the report of the Danish Immigration Service and the report from the EU,” Eva Singer, head of asylum at the Danish Refugee Council, told DR.

“This corresponds to 30 percent of the cases, and these are refugees who may also be at risk if they are sent back to Syria. We cannot see how they differ from the others. As such, the practice at the Refugee Appeals Board is not clear,” she said.

The Refugee Appeals Board told DR that approval of some appeals and rejection of others “is not an expression of unclear practice”.

“In all cases, the Refugee Appeals Board conducts a concrete and individual assessment,” to assess whether the applicant “risks persecution or abuse,” it said.

“General conditions” in Damascus and the surrounding region are not considered in isolation to be cause for granting or extending asylum, it said.

Denmark and Hungary are the only EU countries which currently deem it safe to return Syrian refugees.

Since Denmark doesn’t have a repatriation agreement with Syria, refugees whose status is revoked are frequently moved indefinitely to detention facilities termed ‘deportation centres’, where conditions have been strongly criticised.

READ MORE: Danish agency sent letters about deportation to refugee children 

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IMMIGRATION

Relocation of women from Danish expulsion centre ‘could take months’

A decision to move single women from Denmark’s controversial Kærshovedgård departure centre to a different facility could take two months to implement, the Danish Immigration Service has said.

Relocation of women from Danish expulsion centre 'could take months'

The Ministry of Immigration and Integration recently announced that a group of single women will be relocated from the Kærshovedgård departure centre to another departure centre, Avnstrup.

The decision was made partly to “address reports of episodes where women have been subjected to harassment and unwanted sexual contact at Kærshovedgård”, the ministry said in a statement at the time.

But the Danish Immigration Service told newswire Ritzau on Friday that it will take around two months before the women can be moved.

A decision must be made on whether facilities at Avnstrup must be adapted to be able to accommodate the women there, the agency said.

Some 18 reports of sexual harassment have been filed at Kærshovedgård since 2016, according to Ritzau. All but one of the reports were also filed with police, the agency said.

READ ALSO: Danish research reveals strain on refugees since country’s ‘paradigm shift’

The numbers do not necessarily only relate to incidents targeting women and there is variation in their character and severity, the Immigration Service also noted.

Avnstrup, which is operated by the Danish Red Cross on behalf of the Danish Immigration Service, is staffed around the clock and primarily accommodates families including children who do not have the legal right to reside in Denmark.

The Kærshovedgård facility is operated by the Danish prison service, Kriminalforsorgen. It is one of two deportation centres in Denmark used to house rejected male and female asylum seekers who have not agreed to voluntary return, as well as persons with so-called ‘tolerated stay’ (tålt ophold) status.

This includes people who have not committed crimes but have no legal right to stay in Denmark, for example due to a rejected asylum claim; as well as foreign nationals with criminal records who have served their sentences but are awaiting deportation.

The residents do not have permission to reside in Denmark but many cannot be forcibly deported because Denmark has no diplomatic relations or return agreements with their home countries.

A longstanding expulsion facility in operation since 2016, Kærshovedgård has recently received renewed media attention in Denmark after a film highlighted the plight of rejected asylum seekers trapped at the centre.

It first became prominent in the mid-2010s, when it received criticism for imposing conditions that could lead to mental illnesses in residents. Around 250 people currently live there.

READ ALSO: ‘Unbearable’: New film reveals life at Denmark’s controversial deportation centre

Media in Denmark have in recent months reported numerous instances of problems at the facility, which is located 13 kilometres from Ikast in Jutland.

Five residents were charged in August 2023 for possession and sale of narcotics.

During a raid on the centre in November, police found cannabis, a taser, an illegal switchblade knife and counterfeit Euro banknotes.

Later the same week, a resident was charged and detained by police for endangering others after allegedly firing a shot inside a room at the centre, police said.

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