Denmark is not the first EU country that shows signs of ‘refugees fatigue’, TheLocal reported. Denmark informed the UN about its decision not to take in any refugees under the UN’s quota system in 2018.
Denmark’s government is going to be focusing on the current migrants’ integration instead of taking on the board the refugees. In 2017, the country registered 3,500 asylum seekers, the lowest number since 2008. For the first 10 months of 2018, some 2,600 applications have been received. So far, to integrate the migrants into the Danish world is almost impossible. They prefer to live in their communities, to communicate in their language, to use the social package instead of working or at least a hunting a job.
In 2016, the Scandinavian country suspended its participation in the UN refugee quota system, and has yet to resume it. Immigration Minister Inger Støjberg said in a statement that Denmark still in a situation where the society is struggling to integrate the many refugees who have come to Denmark in recent years.
So-called UN “quota refugees” are offered resettlement in a third country if the country where they first register as refugees cannot accommodate them.
A member of the liberal Venstre party in Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen’s conservative coalition government, Støjberg has orchestrated Denmark’s immigration policy since 2015.
“While an increasing number of refugees have entered the labour market, there are still too many who cannot support themselves,” she said.
A new immigration law adopted at the end of 2017 stipulates that the number of refugees received is to be decided by the immigration ministry.
The UN about refugee quotas
The quota system enables the UN to relocate refugees whose needs cannot be met in countries that neighbour the conflicts they have fled from.
“Since 2015, the number of asylum seekers in Denmark has fallen dramatically. This year only approximately 2,000 new asylum seekers have come to Denmark. This would be a very good time for Denmark to resume accepting quota refugees,”
Melissa Fleming, spokesperson for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, told Politiken.
