The Council of Europe teaches lessons in Copenhagen. In a report published this Thursday, he calls on Denmark to review its migration policy in order to ensure the protection and integration of refugees and to abandon any plan to outsource the asylum application process.
“Outsourcing projects risk setting a worrying precedent by shifting responsibilities within the global system of international protection,” says Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatović in her study, following a visit to Denmark in May-June 2023.
A transfer to Rwanda also envisaged by London
The Nordic kingdom had initially planned to transfer its asylum seekers outside Europe, possibly to Rwanda, before announcing that it was seeking a common solution with the European Union to jointly organize this transfer. In the United Kingdom, whose government wanted to send migrants who arrived illegally on its soil to Rwanda, the Supreme Court ruled the project illegal. The Council of Europe, for its part, expresses “doubts as to the compatibility of (outsourcing) projects with international standards relating to human rights”.
In addition, the international organization is concerned about the tightening of the Scandinavian country’s migration policy. “Denmark’s recent paradigm shift in its refugee policy (…) places refugees, asylum seekers and migrants in a situation of disarray and uncertainty,” laments the report.
The Council of Europe denounces “punitive” measures
By prioritizing temporary protection and return over integration, Danish policy threatens the well-being of people who precisely need assistance and protection, underlines the Council of Europe. Authorities must therefore “refocus on providing greater certainty and security to refugees and other protection holders”.
The Council of Europe targets the treatment of those whose right to asylum has been rejected and those whose residence permit has not been renewed but who cannot return home, in particular Syrians from Damascus and its surroundings, sent in administrative detention centers. “The Commissioner finds it particularly problematic that people who cannot be returned, including families with children, risk seeing their lives put on hold and remaining without a solution for years,” notes the report, denouncing “punitive” measures. “.