Posted on January 21, 2016

Denmark Considers Moving Migrants to Camps Outside Cities

Alexander Tange, Reuters, January 21, 2016

Denmark is considering moving migrants into camps outside its towns and cities, a tactic that the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party (DF) hopes will shift the focus of government immigration policy to repatriation rather than integration.

Denmark has been widely criticised in the past month for proposals to tighten immigration laws including using refugees’ valuables to pay for their stay and postponing family reunification to three years.

Led by the anti-immigration, eurosceptic DF party, parliament passed the resolution, which will force the government to come up with a proposal by March to build state-backed “villages” to replace housing in cities and towns.

Some tent camps have already been set up for single male refugees to give migrant families priority in cities.

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Foreign Minister Kristian Jensen travelled to Geneva on Thursday to explain his government’s policy to the United Nation’s Human Rights Council during the organisation’s regular review of the human rights situation in the country.

The Danish government has also been summoned before the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) committee of the EU parliament on Monday to defend its reforms.

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