A charter flight left Copenhagen bound for Baghdad last week containing 22 Iraqi asylum seekers who refused to leave the country voluntarily after their asylum applications were rejected.
The 21 men and one woman were part of a group of 60 who had sought refuge inside a church in the capital. Police controversially stormed the church in August, removing the group who have since been held in a detention centre in Copenhagen’s north.
The forced repatriation has sparked debate in a country renowned for its strict immigration laws ever since the right wing government came to power in 2001. Integration Minister Birthe Roenn advised reporters the move was taken due to the Iraqis’ failure to meet Danish asylum criteria, and rebuked suggestions that the group could face victimisation upon returning to their homeland.
Roenn confirmed that the governments of the two countries has signed a repatriation agreement earlier in the year and suggested additional asylum seekers pre-empt deportation by leaving voluntarily. Roenn claimed during interviews that global insecurity was widespread and that in itself was not sufficient reason to grant asylum.
The forced return has sparked debate across Denmark, with a number of left-wing political groups speaking out against the decision and claiming they would not hesitate to provide aid and shelter to any additional Iraqis which the government sought to repatriate.
Members of the Social Democratic Party and Socialist People’s Party told the Politiken newspaper that they would be happy to open their doors to asylum seekers, saying that the nation should side with humanity, rather than arcane laws.
The newspaper also pointed fingers at five other Danish members of the public who had provided aid to Iraqi workers, including a social worker and a doctor who had treated a pregnant woman. The government and its allies have claimed that offers of unlawful assistance were disturbing.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraqi_Kurdistan
WELL THOSE IRAKES DID ABANDON A COUNTRY BECAUSE THEY PROBABLY WERE IN GREAT DANGER THERE. PEOPLE EASILY FORGET THAT THERE ARE MANY IRAKES THAT ARE CHRISTIAN AND THEY ARE HARDLY MOLESTED, PERSECUTED AND KILLED THERE BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT MUSLIM. I KNOW MYSELF AN IRAKE THAT IS CHRISTIAN AND HE CANNOT GO BACK THERE BECAUSE THEY WOULD KILL HIM. CHRISTIAN CHURCHES IN IRAK HAVE BEEN DEMOLISHED AND BURNED, SOMETIMES WITH PEOPLE INSIDE OF THEM. BY THE OTHER HAND WE HAVE THE CASE OF THE KURDISH PEOPLE, THEY HAVE BEEN MASSACRED AND FORGOTTEN BY THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY AND THEY STILL SUFFER CONFINED IN REFUGEES CAMPS IN THE NORTH EAST OF IRAK. WITH NO SUPPORT AND THEY ARE CONSTANTLY MOLESTED BOTH BY THE TURKISH GOVERNMENT AND THE IRAKI.
IT IS ABSURD THAT WE ( THE WESTERN COUNTRIES) PRODUCE AN ILLEGAL WAR AND AT THE SAME TIME ARE NOT WILLING TO SECURE THE LIFES OF THOSE MINORITY GROUPS LIKE CHRISTIANS AND KURDISH PEOPLE.
SENDING THEM BACK TO IRAK IS CONDEMNING THEM TO DEATH AND THIS IS THE MOST DISGUSTING AND INHUMAN ACT A DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT CAN COMMIT.
I AM ASHAMED OF DENMARK, AND ALSO ASHAMED OF OTHER COUNTRIES THAT WOULD NOT OFFER REFUGE TO THOSE PEOPLE.
Not from that article. This is what “offers of unlawful assistance were disturbing” was referring to:
“with a number of left-wing political groups speaking out against the decision and claiming they would not hesitate to provide aid and shelter to any additional Iraqis which the government sought to repatriate.”
and
“Members of the Social Democratic Party and Socialist People’s Party told the Politiken newspaper that they would be happy to open their doors to asylum seekers, saying that the nation should side with humanity, rather than arcane laws.”
The Danish government thinks a doctor treating a pregnant woman is ‘disturbing’?
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