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IMMIGRATION

Minister praises ‘low’ number of Denmark asylum applications in 2021

A total of 2,095 applications for asylum were registered by Denmark in 2021, less than 10 percent of the number who came to the country for protection in 2015.

Published: 27 January 2022 17:27 CET
Immigration minister Mattias Tesfaye said he was pleased to see asylum applications in Denmark remain low in 2021.
Immigration minister Mattias Tesfaye said he was pleased to see asylum applications in Denmark remain low in 2021. File photo: Ólafur Steinar Rye Gestsson/Ritzau Scanpix

The number represents an increase compared to 2020, when the Covid-19 crisis most severely impacted international travel and migration. 1,515 people applied for asylum in Denmark in 2020.

Both the 2020 and 2021 figures are less than one tenth of the number recorded in 2015, when 21,316 people applied for asylum in Denmark at the peak of the European migration crisis.

The new data was released by the Ministry of Immigration and Integration.

Among the 2,095 asylum seekers in 2021 are 430 Afghans who were evacuated as the Taliban gained control of Kabul in August last year.

The definitions used to record total asylum seeker numbers go back to 1998. The 2021 figures are still preliminary.

Around 12,000 people applied for asylum in Denmark in the years 1999-2002 before the total dropped, ranging between 2,000 and 6,000 annually until 2012. It then increased, partly due to the conflict in Syria and was 14,792 in 2014 and 21,316 the following year, the highest on record.

Since 2017, the annual total of asylum applications has not exceeded 4,000.

“I’m pleased we still have low asylum numbers here. A serious of clever decisions have been made which have continually ensured better control of immigration,” immigration minister Mattias Tesfaye said in a ministry statement.

Earlier in January, Tesfaye was on the sharp end of criticism from MEPs – some from European equivalents of his own Social Democratic party – over the Danish government’s policy of sending some Syrian refugees back to the Damascus region.

In mid-2020, Denmark became the first European Union country to re-examine the cases of about 500 Syrians from Damascus, which is under the control of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, claiming “the current situation in Damascus is no longer such as to justify a residence permit or the extension of a residence permit”. 

Despite a wave of Danish and international criticism, including from experts used by the government, Tesfaye’s ministry has refused to budge over the policy.

Some members of the LIBE committee argues that Denmark was displaying a lack of solidarity with other EU countries because refugees in Denmark were more likely to apply for asylum elsewhere in the EU than risk return to Syria.

He received support from other MEPs during the hearing, notably Peter Kofod of the far-right Danish People’s Party and national conservative Italian MEP Nicola Procaccini.

READ ALSO: EU politicians criticise Denmark over return policy for Syrian refugees

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IMMIGRATION

Local authority demands changes at Denmark’s Kærshovedgård asylum camp

Elected officials in the local Ikast-Brande Municipality have demanded the government act following a recent damning report on conditions at the Kærshovedgård ‘departure centre’.

Published: 30 April 2024 16:40 CEST
Local authority demands changes at Denmark’s Kærshovedgård asylum camp

Local politicians in Ikast-Brande have reportedly run out of patience with crime and security issues at the Kærshovedgård ‘departure centre’ for rejected asylum seekers and convicted felons awaiting deportation.

The officials have stated their position in a letter sent by the Ikast-Brande municipal council to Mininster for Immigration and Integration Kaare Dybvad Bek, newswire Ritzau reports.

That comes after conditions at the centre were the focus of a stinging rebuke in a report by the Ombudsman, the Danish parliamentary watchdog, in a report published last week.

READ ALSO: Danish watchdog slams ‘deteriorating’ conditions at Kærshovedgård asylum facility

In the report, the ombudsman said conditions at the centre have deteriorated and are now so poor that they prevent residents from “living basic life”, while security at the facility was also criticised.

“We cannot passively look on as criminal residents who have been sentenced to deportation and who live at Kærshovedgård Departure Centre repeatedly commit new crimes and create insecurity in the local community,” the officials write in the letter.

Incidents named in the letter including drugs cases and a recent fatal traffic accident for which a resident of Kærshovedgård is the subject of police charges.

“We need a solution now,” the council writes without providing any specific suggestions as to which measures could be taken.

While state funds have been provided for the purposes of improving safety in the community neighbouring the facility, this does not go far enough according to the authors of the letter.

“The crime which is committed by some of the residents of the departure centre is not reduced by this funding. It is the residents, their behaviour and their movements which should be in focus,” they say.

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

Located 13 kilometres from Ikast in Jutland, the Kærshovedgård facility 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. Some residents are 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.

Kærshovedgård first became prominent in the mid-2010s, when it received criticism for imposing conditions that could lead to mental illnesses in residents.

“The security situation for the residents of Kærshovedgård appears to have worsened since the ombudsman’s last visit, and this is a development that should be rectified,” the ombudsman, Niels Fenger, said in a statement on Friday.

Fenger said he was “of the impression that residents experience greater feelings of insecurity at the departure centre [and there is] a lot of crime including the sale of narcotics.”

“Additionally, the atmosphere at the departure centre carries a sense of deterioration and a significant number of residents have addiction problems,” the ombudsman statement said.

The ombudsman also observed that, since a previous visit in 2017, “there has been a change in the composition of residents in that people who have a deportation [criminal, ed.] sentence and who did not previously live at Kærshovedgård now make up the largest group at the location”.

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