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| Europe |
| Danish People's Party: More asylum restrictions coming |
| 2016-01-28 |
| Denmark will probably tighten its asylum policies further, the country's influential anti-immigration party said on Wednesday, a day after lawmakers passed a controversial bill allowing authorities to seize valuables from refugees. The Danish People's Party (DF) has already reached agreement with Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen's minority government to retroactively lower social benefits for those granted asylum under the previous centre-left coalition, DF's spokesman on immigration issues Martin Henriksen told AFP. He also expected legislation to be passed making it easier to deport refugees who have committed crimes. "We have influenced them in several different areas and we see that as our job," Henriksen said of the government. "It wouldn't be the first time that the Danish People's Party has to work to get curbs [on immigration] through parliament," he added. On Tuesday, when Denmark's parliament adopted the reforms aimed at dissuading migrants from seeking asylum by delaying family reunifications and allowing authorities to confiscate migrants' valuables, Rasmussen's right-wing Venstre government said it had no immediate plans to tighten asylum rules further. "At the moment, no, we do not. We've introduced several pieces of legislation to keep the amount of asylum at a manageable level," Marcus Knuth, Venstre's spokesman on immigration issues, told AFP. In order to pass legislation the right-wing minority government needs parliamentary backing from DF, which became Denmark's biggest right-wing party in last year's general election. "A lot of the curbs that were adopted yesterday have only been introduced because the Danish People's Party has pushed for them," Henriksen said. "The government initially proposed a package of migration laws that was much smaller than what was passed yesterday," he added, noting that DF was the first party in parliament to raise the issue of whether migrants' valuables could be used to pay for their stay in asylum centres. DF is also behind a resolution, passed by lawmakers last week, pushing the government to look into the construction of temporary housing complexes outside cities for refugees, like the country did during the Balkans war in the 1990s. DF sees it as a first step towards building state-run camps where refugees would stay without integrating into Danish society. The government has opposed the idea. |
| Posted by:Steve White |
| #3 My guess is that given the choice, the bejeweled migrant will return to Germany. |
| Posted by: Sven the pelter 2016-01-28 13:09 |
| #2 I guess to a socialist this is no big deal, but I would imagine that impoverishing your new citizens is probably a bad idea. |
| Posted by: Iblis 2016-01-28 12:58 |
| #1 Since you cannot get to Denmark without travelling through safe countries. The umber of genuine asylum seekers in Denmark is zero. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2016-01-28 10:28 |