Wednesday

6th Dec 2023

Danish lawmakers back seizing migrant valuables

  • Police are now allowed to seize anything worth more than €1,340, including cash. (Photo: EUobserver)

Denmark is moving ahead with plans to seize refugees' valuables despite a growing international backlash over its legislative proposal.

The bill to confiscate valuables and toughen other migration policies received wide support among Danish lawmakers on Thursday (21 January) and is set to be voted into law early next week.

Read and decide

Join EUobserver today

Become an expert on Europe

Get instant access to all articles — and 20 years of archives. 14-day free trial.

... or subscribe as a group

It allows police to seize anything worth more than €1,340, including cash, in a government effort to finance their stay in Denmark.

Similar proposals are also being introduced in Switzerland and now reportedly in Germany's Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria regions.

The Danish bill also imposes strict measures on family reunification and makes it more difficult to obtain permanent residency permits.

So-called "war refugees" would have to wait up to three years before being eligible to apply for family reunification. The process itself could take even longer.

Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights guarantees the right to family reunification.

Denmark's minority right-wing government is backed by the populist and anti-immigrant Danish People's party.

The preamble to the party's programme says, among other things, that "Denmark belongs to the Danes and its citizens."

The European Commission, for its part, has refrained from making any comments despite sharp criticism from the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), Amnesty International, and the human-rights watchdog the Council of Europe.

Margrethe Vestager, a Danish national and perhaps the EU executive's most powerful commissioner at the moment, said the bill hadn't been discussed with the commission.

"When it comes to the concrete legislative measures in Denmark, I am in the privileged position that there are people that I know and trust who will discuss that in a Danish context and I think that is the way it should be and not for me to comment as a commissioner," she told reporters on Wednesday.

The UNHCR has warned the bill, also known as the Danish Aliens legislation, could violate a number of international conventions, including the global convention on the rights of the child.

Last week, the agency accused Denmark of deliberately introducing measures to curb the number of asylum seekers instead of supporting a fair distribution of asylum seekers within all EU member states.

It noted the new law would most likely "fuel fear, xenophobia".

Nils Muiznieks, the Council of Europe's commissioner for human rights, asked the Danish government to scrap the bill.

In a letter addressed to Denmark's immigration minister, Inger Stojberg, earlier this week, he said the law raised "serious concerns of conformity with human rights standards".

Amnesty International, for its part, described the bill as "cruel" in a statement on Thursday.

Gauri van Gulik, Amnesty International's deputy director for Europe and Central Asia, said it forced people running from conflicts to make an impossible decision to "either bring children and other loved ones on dangerous, even lethal journeys, or leave them behind and face a prolonged separation while family members continue to suffer the horrors of war".

Domino effect: Denmark follows Sweden on EU border checks

“May I see your ID?” - five little words on a train platform in Copenhagen on Monday mark the end of 60 years of Nordic free travel, as first Sweden, then Denmark impose new border checks amid the refugee crisis.

Latest News

  1. Crunch talks seek breakthrough on EU asylum overhaul
  2. Polish truck protest at Ukraine border disrupts war supplies
  3. 'Green' banks lend most to polluters, reveals ECB
  4. Tense EU-China summit showdown unlikely to bear fruit
  5. A look to the past and the future of China-EU relations
  6. Tusk's difficult in-tray on Poland's judicial independence
  7. EU nears deal to fingerprint six year-old asylum seekers
  8. Orbán's Ukraine-veto threat escalates ahead of EU summit

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. Nordic Council of MinistersArtist Jessie Kleemann at Nordic pavilion during UN climate summit COP28
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersCOP28: Gathering Nordic and global experts to put food and health on the agenda
  3. Friedrich Naumann FoundationPoems of Liberty – Call for Submission “Human Rights in Inhume War”: 250€ honorary fee for selected poems
  4. World BankWorld Bank report: How to create a future where the rewards of technology benefit all levels of society?
  5. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsThis autumn Europalia arts festival is all about GEORGIA!
  6. UNOPSFostering health system resilience in fragile and conflict-affected countries

Stakeholders' Highlights

  1. European Citizen's InitiativeThe European Commission launches the ‘ImagineEU’ competition for secondary school students in the EU.
  2. Nordic Council of MinistersThe Nordic Region is stepping up its efforts to reduce food waste
  3. UNOPSUNOPS begins works under EU-funded project to repair schools in Ukraine
  4. Georgia Ministry of Foreign AffairsGeorgia effectively prevents sanctions evasion against Russia – confirm EU, UK, USA
  5. Nordic Council of MinistersGlobal interest in the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations – here are the speakers for the launch
  6. Nordic Council of Ministers20 June: Launch of the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Join EUobserver

Support quality EU news

Join us