Denmark: a former minister sentenced for having separated couples of asylum seekers

The former Danish Integration Minister was found guilty on Monday December 13 of having unlawfully separated several couples of asylum seekers. As a result, Inger Støjberg was sentenced to “imprisonment for 60 days”, said the Special Court of Justice, in charge of the trial. It is, however, unlikely that the accused will go to prison. In Denmark, people serving prison sentences of less than six months can be placed under electronic surveillance.

This is only the third time since 1910 that a political leader has been referred to this institution, intended to judge ministers who have committed embezzlement or negligence in the exercise of their functions.

This close to the far-right, fiercely anti-immigration, was accused of having violated the European Convention on Human Rights by ordering the Danish immigration services to separate the couples of asylum seekers, some of whom had children when the woman was under the age of 18. Officially, to fight against forced child marriages.

In 2016, 23 couples, whose age difference was mostly small, had been separated, without individual examination of their file, under the instruction given by the Liberal minister.

>> To (re) read: Separation of couples seeking asylum in Denmark: opening of the trial of former Minister Inger Støjberg

An “illegal” initiative, in the eyes of the President of the Court Thomas Rørdam, “because the Immigration Ministry was not obliged to make a concrete arrangement (…) in which no consideration was given to individuals individually. concerned, “he said when giving the judgment, in the presence of 25 other judges.

“I am very, very surprised. I think it is Danish values ​​that have lost,” said Inger Støjberg, who was pleading not guilty in the trial where she had been appearing since September. “I wished and still wish to protect these girls. I take this punishment with my head held high.”

110 amendments restricting the rights of foreigners

“A large majority find me guilty but unlike you, I know that I did not order something illegal,” she pleaded during a commission of inquiry in February 2021. “Imagine that you arrive in a country like Denmark, a country of parity, as a young girl victim of a forced marriage, and that you find that instead of giving you the possibility of breaking your forced marriage, the state forces you to do so by housing you together in an asylum center “.

Minister of Immigration from 2015 to 2019, in a center-right government supported by the populist anti-immigration right-wing DF (Danish People’s Party), Inger Støjberg assumed Denmark’s very restrictive welcome policy and took pride in ” have adopted more than 110 amendments restricting the rights of foreigners.

>> To (re) read: Denmark: migrants will have to work to receive social benefits

The Danish executive is currently pursuing one of the most restrictive migration policies in Europe. A law passed in June provides that all asylum seekers in Denmark will, once their request has been registered, be sent to a reception center outside the European Union. If for the moment no third country has accepted this relocation project, the NGOs have rebelled against this measure, believing that the device violates the principle of the right of asylum.

Other measures considered to be anti-migrant have been taken by the authorities in recent years: withdrawal of Syrians’ residence permits because their regions of origin are now safe, toughening of an anti-ghetto law aimed at capping the number of “non-Western” inhabitants in the neighborhoods, or even the official objective of achieving “zero refugees”.

After Inger Støjberg was found guilty by the Special Court of Justice – whose verdict is final and cannot be appealed – Parliament must now decide on his possible exclusion from his mandate as a Member of Parliament, which is independent of the sentence.