Denmark tightens restrictions on Eritreans
Published: 26 Nov 2014 11:15 GMT+01:00
After a major fact finding mission, Denmark will no longer give blanket
asylum to Eritreans fleeing their country's authoritarian rule.
*
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http://www.thelocal.dk/20141124/danish-towns-reject-refugees-from-certain-c
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A massive increase in refugees from Eritrea earlier this year led Denmark to
<
http://www.thelocal.dk/20140814/human-trafficking-feared-to-be-behind-asylu
m-boom> put a halt to asylum for Eritreans until the Danish Immigration
Service (Udlændingestyrelsen) could evaluate the reason for the sharp
uptick.
The results of the Immigration Service’s investigation have now been
delivered to the Justice Ministry and Eritreans will once again be eligible
for asylum in Denmark – but under much tougher criteria than before.
The Justice Ministry said in a press release on Tuesday that Eritreans will
no longer be automatically granted asylum if they came to Denmark to flee
their home country’s authoritarian rule and compulsory military service.
Instead, Eritreans will need to show that they face a personal threat in
order to be granted asylum in Denmark.
The UN reported in 2013 that Eritreans subject to conscription into national
service risked retribution and even possible death if they fled the country.
But the Immigration Service’s three-week fact finding mission concluded that
an alleged shoot-to-kill policy targeting Eritreans who illegally leave the
country “might have been party true previously but … people are no longer
being shot at just because they try to cross the border into Ethiopia”.
Immigration Service also said that international reports of up to 10,000
political prisoners in Eritrea “is difficult to harmonize with the reality
on the ground”.
The extensive fact finding report indicates that the human rights situation
in Eritrea may not be as bad as rumoured, thus Denmark will no longer give
blanket asylum to Eritreans.
“The report gives new and relevant information on the asylum situation in
relation to Eritrea. The report shows that there was a need for updated
information and that it was necessary for Immigration Service to carry out a
fact finding mission,” Justice Minister Mette Frederiksen said.
Frederiksen wouldn’t comment directly on what would happen to the some 1,400
Eritreans who have been waiting in Danish asylum centres for their cases to
be processed.
“As justice minister, I don’t have the competence to rule on concrete asylum
cases. At the end of the day it will be Flygtningenævnet [the Danish Refugee
Appeals Board, ed.] that will apply the meaning of this new information on
Eritrea to the actual asylum cases,” Frederiksen said.
Throughout the first quarter of 2014, roughly ten Eritrean asylum seekers
arrived in Denmark each month. In July, that number jumped to 510, leading
the then justice minister, Karen Hækkerup, to put asylum for Eritreans on
hold pending the Immigration Service’s findings.
According to Politiken, Eritreans make up the second-largest group of
refugees in Denmark this year behind Syrians.
The Danish Immigration Service's fact finding report on Eritrea is available
<
http://www.nyidanmark.dk/NR/rdonlyres/B28905F5-5C3F-409B-8A22-0DF0DACBDAEF/
0/EritreareportEndeligversion.pdf> here (in English).
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Received on Wed Nov 26 2014 - 15:36:34 EST