# 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.
       
 (IMG) 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
       
 (DIR) Global Detention Project
       
       ## TAGS
       
 (DIR) migControl
       
       ## ARTIKEL ZUM THEMA