Denmark wants migrants to work for welfare benefits
The government says the plan is designed to help
migrants assimilate into society. The country has set a target of zero asylum
applications.
Published 9
September 2021 at 10:24am
Danish
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen says migrants in Denmark will be told to
complete 37 hours' work a week in order to receive welfare benefits. Source:
AFP
Migrants in
Denmark will be told to complete 37 hours of work a week in order to receive
welfare benefits, the government has said.
Migration
and integration have become key issues for voters in Denmark, which boasts some
of Europe's toughest immigration policies.
"We
want to introduce a new work logic where people have a duty to contribute and
be useful, and if they can't find a regular job, they have to work for their
allowance," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters.
"For
too many years we have done a disservice to a lot of people by not demanding
anything of them," she added of the plan, which needs to be approved by
lawmakers.
Mai
Villadsen, spokeswoman of the left-wing Unity List, condemned Tuesday's
announcement as misguided.
"I'm
afraid this will end up as state-supported social dumping, sending people into
crazy jobs," she told broadcaster TV2.
Initially,
it will be a requirement for those who have been on benefits for three to four
years, and who have not attained a certain level of schooling and proficiency
in Danish.
Working
hours will be a minimum of 37 hours a week, Ms Frederiksen said.
According
to the government, six out of 10 women from the Middle East, North Africa and
Turkey do not participate in the Danish labour market.
The plan
says it aims to integrate 20,000 people by pushing them to find some form of
work, through local government offices.
"It
could be a job on the beach picking up cigarette butts or plastic... (or)
helping to solve various tasks within a company," employment minister
Peter Hummelgaard said.
"The
most important thing for us is that people get out of their homes," he
added.
Ms
Frederiksen's government, in power since 2019, has set a target of zero asylum
applications, which have already fallen. Just 851 were received between the 1
January and the 31 July this year.
According
to official statistics, 11 per cent of Denmark's 5.8 million people are
immigrants, and 58 per cent of those are citizens of a country that Copenhagen
classifies as "non-Western".
Denmark passes law to relocate asylum seekers
outside Europe
UN opposed bill for fear it would erode refugees’
rights and encourage other EU states to follow suit
Reuters in
Copenhagen
Thu 3 Jun
2021 12.38 BST
Denmark has
passed a law enabling it to process asylum seekers outside Europe, drawing
anger from human rights advocates, the UN and European Commission.
Politicians
in the wealthy Scandinavian nation, which has gained notoriety for its hardline
immigration policies over the last decade, passed the law with 70 votes in
favour and 24 against.
The
legislation will complicate the EU’s efforts to overhaul Europe’s fragmented
migration and asylum rules, an extremely divisive subject within the bloc.
The
European Commission (the EU’s executive) questioned the law’s compatibility
with Denmark’s international obligations.
“External
processing of asylum claims raises fundamental questions about both the access
to asylum procedures and effective access to protection,” said Adalbert Jahnz,
a commission spokesperson. “It is not possible under existing EU rules or
proposals under the new pact for migration and asylum.”
Denmark
maintains one of Europe’s harshest stances on immigration and aims to accept
refugees only under the UN’s quota system.
The new law
will allow Denmark to move refugees from Danish soil to asylum centres in a
partner country for case reviews and possibly their protection in that country.
“If you
apply for asylum in Denmark you know that you will be sent back to a country
outside Europe, and therefore we hope that people will stop seeking asylum in
Denmark,” Rasmus Stoklund, the government party’s immigration speaker, told the
broadcaster DR on Thursday.
Denmark has
yet to reach an agreement with a partner country, but Stoklund said there were
negotiations with several candidate countries.
In April,
Denmark’s immigration minister, Mattias Tesfaye, whose father was an Ethiopian
immigrant, appeared in Rwanda on an unannounced visit to the central African
nation, which led to the signing of diplomatic agreements on asylum and
political matters.
Tesfaye
later said it was too early to name any specific partner countries, but
Denmark, along with Austria, has previously pledged support for a UN-operated
refugee camp in Rwanda, set up to receive refugees stuck in Libya.
Policemen
watch migrants, including people from Syria and Iraq, as they walk along a
motorway in Denmark, 2015
EU
countries discussed setting up such external centres in 2016-18 after a sharp
rise in Mediterranean arrivals overwhelmed the bloc. Legal, humanitarian,
political, safety and financial concerns eclipsed the proposals back then.
Critics
worry that moving the asylum process to countries with fewer resources will
undermine the safety and welfare of refugees and compromise their human rights.
“The idea
to externalise the responsibility of processing asylum seekers’ asylum claims
is both irresponsible and lacking in solidarity,” said Charlotte Slente, the
general secretary of the Danish Refugee Council, an NGO.
The United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) warned last month that Denmark’s
move could trigger a “race to the bottom” if other countries followed suit.
Gillian
Triggs, a UNHCR assistant high commissioner, said: “Such practices undermine
the rights of those seeking safety and protection, demonise and punish them,
and may put their lives at risk.”
The number
of refugees seeking asylum in Denmark has dropped steadily to just over 1,500
applicants last year from a peak of more than 21,000 in 2015, when more than a
million refugees mostly from the Middle East and Africa made it to EU shores
.jpeg)
Sem comentários:
Enviar um comentário