Only in Denmark

URL: http://www.b.dk/nationalt/diplomater-er-ofre-for-pointsystem

It is almost impossible for Danish diplomats’ foreign partners to get residency in Denmark. The government’s point system is prompting the high-educated Danes to live abroad instead.

Humiliating and degrading – that’s the description of Danish diplomats’ experience of the process that they have to go through to get residency for their foreign partners.

Worker’s union DJØF and organisation Danes Worldwide has noticed the rising numbers of inquiries from frustrated diplomats who have been hit by the government’s new point system.

The point system makes it almost impossible for diplomats’ partners to get permanent residency in Denmark because they rarely spend enough time in the country to fulfill the requirements in the system. According to their work contract at the Foreign Affairs Ministry, these diplomats have to be ready to move abroad with short warning.

»It is very inappropriate for the country’s interest that we have rules that hit people who represent Denmark abroad. It is absurd,« says Lars Qvistgaard,  head of the worker’s union DJØF’s Overenskomstforening department

The Ministry, that currently has 1.828 diplomats abroad have acknowledged the problem and fear that the problem would grow bigger if there’s no changes in the rules. A couple of the diplomats would soon return to Denmark in the next few years and that they would experience the consequences of the point system.

Therefore, the Ministry has requested the Integration Ministry to reevaluate the rules to see if there is a chance to get a dispensation for returning diplomats.

»We ask our employees and their partners to travel abroad to represent Denmark, and at the same time we give them a very difficult dilemma where they might have to choose between career and love. That’s inappropriate,« says Thomas Munk-Larsen, HR-head department at the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

Not needing Denmark

Anne Marie Dalgaard is general secretary in Danes Worldwide. She has seen how the problem has prompted Danes to live in other places.

»They state that they receive unfriendly welcome in Denmark and end up with choosing another country to live. These people are global citizens, they don’t need Denmark,« says Anne Marie Dalgaard.

Another consequence of the rule is that it could be difficult for Danish diplomats to do their job abroad when they feel that they’re treated badly in Denmark, explained Jens Christian Andersen, who is DJØFs middleman in the Foreign Affairs Ministry.

»We have difficulties in recruiting and keeping qualified employees if the consequence is that their foreign partners could not get permanent residency in Denmark,« says he.

S wants new law

The opposition party supports DJØF’s idea to get dispensation for the diplomat but that is not enough.

»Just because these diplomats are working according to their job descriptions, their foreign partners could not get permanent residency in Denmark. It is obvious that the pointsystem is inapplicable and irreparable. We should have a completely new system,« says Social Democrat’s Integratonsspokesman Henrik Dam Kristensen.

The government is currently evaluating the point system and Venstre integrationspokesman Karsten Lauritzen, is considering a dispensation as a possibility.

»We can’t just give top diplomats special treatments but we need to see which rules apply for others. I could see where the problem is and I hope that it could be solved without the rules have to be changed completely,« says he.

URL: http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Andre_sprog/English/2011/02/24/140714.htm

A Turkish-born family man and early retirement pensioner from Vamdrup has been denied a Danish residence permit despite the fact that he has lived in Denmark for more than 30 years.

But this verdict is out of proportion, his Danish lawyer says.

58 year-old Yusuf Lima was granted a Danish citizenship in 1993. But a few years later he had to travel to Turkey to settle an inheritance case. In connection to this trip, he was given a Turkish identity card, says Yusuf’s daughter, Gül Liman:

- The only thing he wanted was a health insurance card or an identity number, she says.

The card was not a Turkish citizenship
The family believes that the card was an identity card, but the Danish authorities believe that he was in fact given a Turkish citizenship. Consequently, he lost his Danish citizenship, because dual citizenship can only be granted under special circumstances in Denmark. The Danish immigration authorities started looking into the matter five years ago and declared Yusuf Liman stateless.

- A mistake must have been made in Ankara, because my father was only given a number, says Gül Liman.

Case has been put on hold
Yusuf Liman was supposed to leave Denmark today, but after P4 Trekanten looked into the matter, Yusuf’s lawyer, Gert Jørgensen, has been told that Yusuf can stay in Denmark until the case has been settled.

The whole incident could have been avoided if authorities would only approve dual citizenship, the lawyer says.

- It would solve a lot of problems, also in many other cases, Gert Jørgensen says.

Yusuf Liman can stay in Denmark until his complaint has been processed in the ministry. The duration of this is unknown.

URL: http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Andre_sprog/English/2011/02/24/100345.htm

For more than a year, Minister for Refugee, Immigration and Integration Affairs, Birthe Rønn Hornbech (V), has turned a blind eye to the illegal case handling of 14 stateless young persons’ application for Danish citizenship. This has been brought to light by new information from Sweden, which the daily paper Information is in possession of.

The Integration Ministry rejected the 14 applications during 2009, and in 2010 Birthe Rønn Hornbech informed the Folketing about the incorrect case handling. But information from the Swedish Integration Ministry indicates that the minister already knew about the illegal case handling in December 2008. At that time, the Danish Integration Ministry apparently contacted the Swedish integration authorities to find out how they dealt with the UN convention concerning stateless persons.

The date of this inquiry is essential. It proves when Birthe Rønn Hornbech in fact became aware of the Integration Ministry’s illegal case handling, Information writes.

Center of attention again
Experts agree that the new information is harmful to the minister.

- If the minister knew about the mistake for more than a year without reacting, it is very serious. Then she has neglected her duty to comply with international conventions and informing the Folketing. That is a clear violation of the Law of Ministerial Responsibility, says Professor of Constitutional Law Jens Elo Rytter to Information. The opposition also underlines the gravity of the matter.

- There is only one thing to say, this case must in the name of decency be scrutinized, says Henrik Dam Kristensen from Socialdemokratiet. Birthe Rønn Hornbech has not commented on the new information.

URL: http://www.b.dk/nationalt/malmoe-danmarks-ry-oedelaegger-regionen

Øresund region’s growth suffer since Denmark has been labelled as an anti-foreigner country, according to Malmö’s mayor.

Researchers, qualified workers and international firms are running away from Øresund region because of the tight immigration policy applied in Denmark, according to Malmö’s mayor Imar Reepalu. He says that Denmark has ruined the expectation of successful growth around Øresund.

»Denmark has been labelled as a closed and xenophobic country. A stain like that takes a long time to clean. It affects the rest of the Øresund region« says Ilmar Reepalu and backing up his statement with OECD data in 2009 where it shows that Copenhagen is far worse in attracting workers than Stockholm or Amsterdam.

Work market researcher at Aalborg University Flemming Ibsen warns that Denmark’s bad reputation would prevent Denmark from attracting needed qualified workers.

»It’s catastrophic, that somebody won’t pick Øresund and Denmark in the whole because of the label we got. It costs a lot of money to the Danish society and it takes a long time to repair the goodwill« says he.

Another mayor in Skåne region, Lunds Mats Helmfrid, who is a member of the conservative party Moderaterna doesn’t think that one can blame the tight immigration policy as a reason that the stunted growth in Øresund region.

»I do think that the debat (about immigration) in Denmark is a bit too harsh« says Mats Helmfried, member of the conservative party Moderaterna.

A similar argument has been used by other Swedish politicians, including Maria Wetterstrand from the environment-friendly party De Grønnes.

She warned in January that Sweden would be like Denmark: closed and intolerant«

Copenhagen’s headmayor Frank Jensen (S) does not wish to comment on the attacks from the others ide of Øresund but the on the northern part of the region Helsingør mayor Johannes Hecht-Nielsen (V) disagreed with Ilmar Reepalus analysis.

»I don’t think that the growth plan in Øresund is completely ruined, we can also confirm that they have a larger growth in Sweden but I think it doesn’t have anything to do with immigration rules, says the Venstre politician.

URL: http://politiken.dk/politik/ECE1200661/ogsaa-liberal-alliance-beskytter-birthe-roenn/

Unnecessary with independent investigation on the 10-year failures on the stateless case, LA says.

Liberal Alliance saves the government from independent investigation on the 10-year continous failure in the Integration Ministry.

The mistakes have resulted in 460 stateless denied Danish citizenship, conflicting with UN-convention on stateless children. Only now that they get the opportunity to get Danish citizenship.

Without votes from Liberal Alliance, the opposition cannot muster a majority to conduct the investigation on the long-running mistakes.

Simon Emil Ammitzbøll from Liberal Alliance says that he trusts that the mistakes are now corrected and the Integration Minister Birthe Rønn Hornbech (V) will investigate the case internally in the ministry.

How can you be confident that she would conduct the investigation when she herself has known the matter for over 10 years?

»It is backward when the minister that has solved the problem, now made into culprit when there were actually three previous ministers who also knew about the error«, says he.

»This is about administrative problem, not political, therefore I have full confidence that it’s the minister’s responsibility to clean up and come up with clarification«, says Ammitzbøll.

Compared with Tamil case

Integration minister Birthe Rønn Hornbech herself is rather pessimistic..

»I doubt that we would solve this case«, she said to Politiken before.

The commenters have previously pointed out that the case is similar to earlier Tamil case that led to the government fall in 1993.

Integration ministry’s current chef Clæs Nilas was secretary to the minister when Justice Minister Erik Ninn-Hansen (K) has illegally denied family reunification from Tamil people in Denmark. The minister got jail sentence while Nilas wasn’t inflicted.

Ammitzbøll will not point fingers to other government officials.

»We believe that a man is innocent until it’s proven otherwise«, says Ammitzbøll.

URL: http://cphpost.dk/news/national/88-national/50995-parties-with-drugs-and-booze-finish-in-emergency-room.html

More young people are being hospitalized having mixed alcohol and “party drugs”

The number of emergency room admittances due to poisoning and overdoses from drugs like cocaine and amphetamines has doubled in ten years, reports Berlingske newspaper.

Many of the country’s emergency rooms confirm that they are seeing more and more young people on weekends with poisoning or overdose from “party drugs”. A worrying feature is that the young people have often combined a number of different drugs along with alcohol.

According to the latest report from the National Board of Health on drug abuse in Denmark, there were 475 hospital admissions due to drug poisoning or overdose in 2009. The number was 177 in 2000.

Overdoses on amphetamines and cocaine have increased markedly. The report also showed that young people under age of 24 account for 60 percent of all drug-related hospitalisations.

Doctor Peter Gulstad Skanning of Bispebjerg Hospital’s poisoning hotline said they are definitely seeing a rise in drug-related poisonings. “They are younger, and they are mixing drugs – unknown and modern drugs are being combined with the classic substances and taken with alcohol,” he said.

That assessment was confirmed by Nurse Rikke Bjerregaard, who works in the emergency room at Hillerød Hospital.

“We are seeing more cases than we used to. It’s usually Fridays and Saturdays, and they are as young as 16,” she said.

“We’re increasingly seeing a lack of concern for what they put in their bodies,” she added. “They arrive maybe with heart palpitations, and when you get to them, you learn that they have taken a line of this and a pill of that, often washed down with alcohol, and some hash besides

URL: http://adventuresandjapes.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/stateless-scandal/

HOLY SHIT you guys. What does it take to remove a minister in this country?

The Integration Minister Birthe Rønn Hornbech (VENSTRE, not DF, VEEEEEN- STRAAAAAAA. Not the “extremists”, not the “they don’t represent all Danes” not “oh but it’s only a minority that vote for them” BUT Venstre-mainstream-a lot of Danes vote for-actually DOES represent a sizeable chunk of Denmark)
has been presiding over a department which ignored the LAW about immigration, wrote up illegal laws, made the Danish State enforce the illegal laws, messed around people who they had no right to mess around with the illegal laws and then when the department got caught… I have to take a breath because this is bad… when the department got caught said “Oh, we must have forgotten about the law” and then “Oh, yeah, sorry, I cannot explain how that happened…”

Is she still working in her job? Yes. Does it look like anything will happen to her? No.

In a country, where you can be deported for missing a deadline with your paperwork or because your wife is studying a degree or you were too sick to learn Danish or you lost your job because the immigration department prevented you from working… In a country where you can be denied permanent residence because you were too busy at WAR to do some poxy volunteering or because you haven’t got the right amount of work experience because you were retraining for the Danish system or because the government made up illegal laws that prevent you from doing so….

It seems… unfair… that you might be able to keep your job when the media reveals that not only has your department broken the law (either through evil or incompetence, YOU DECIDE), but you actually think it makes your case sound better if you claim you “forgot” that there were laws that you had to follow.

Imagine if I claimed to the police that I “forgot” that here in Denmark we are not allowed to cross the road on red. Do you see them letting me off with a shaky finger? Or if I “forgot” the Danish grading system to make an exception for a favourite student or a lesson-ruiner.

How on Earth are these people allowed to continue? I mean, crumbs, Løkke is totally incompetent and he’s still in a job as the State’s Minister. Haarder was on film screaming his stupid head off because a journo asked a question without running it by a spin doctor first. Thorning-Schmidt had some tax questions hanging over her for a long time. And now, Rønne… And they all stay in power.

How is this even democracy? Where is the free speech? That entire shower of shits would have been kicked out long ago. Instead, they are permitted to continue. And do whatever they want with impunity.

They generate a few embarrassing headlines but nothing ever comes of it. What on earth is going on?

URL: http://www.nordjyske.dk/artikel/10/5/29/3793246/3/familie%20rives%20i%20stykker%20af%20staten

A father from Frederikshavn is again denied residence permit.

Two young children born in Denmark, a Danish girlfriend and a steady job. It is not enough to get a residence permit in Denmark. It was decided last Tuesday afternoon when 29-year-old Shaun Anthony Mitchell’s application for residency was denied by the Integration Minister Birthe Ronn Hornbech.

“I feel absolutely terrible right now. It is one big chaos of emotions”, says Shaun’s girlfriend and mother of his two children, Mette Klein Sorensen.

Shaun Mitchell appealed the rejection he received from the Immigration Service last December for his residence permit application.

Back then the Immigration Service assessed that the couple had closer links with Australia, Shaun homeland, than to Denmark. This despite the fact that both couples’ children were born in Denmark, Danish citizens and Mette Klein Jorgensen is currently studying to be teacher in Denmark.

Completely crushed

The couple was optimistic enough to hope for better news. Therefore it was extra painful to receive the news because the letter’s first line did the other six sides equally valid.

“I feel completely shattered. I howled my eyes out after I had read it”, says Mette Klein Jorgensen.

The letter basically said that integration ministry did not find reason to go against the Immigration Service’s decision. It wakes despair in the frederikshavnske home.

“It is a disgusting system. One is just a case, not an actual human one”, says Mette Klein Jorgensen.

Will move to Australia

On Februar 28 Shaun Mitchell will leave the country. The possibility for change in decision is small. Mette Klein Jorgensen therefore sees no choice but to take her two year old son Daniel and newborns with Patrick on the other side of the globe.

“Daniel took it terribly hard to be away from his father for long time last time. He shall never suffer again, “says 31-year-old Mette.

“It’s crazy that they would rather kick all three of us out than giving Shaun permit”.

Mette and Shaun have been victims of some complex rules that were introduced when the Immigration Act was tightened in autumn 2010.

The Couple: “Terrible bureaucracy“

Mette gets money support from the government to take his ongoing training as a teacher, because she developed severe eczema in her previous job as a dental assistant. The support means that Shaun and Mette could not apply for family reunification for marriage couple. Shaun applied instead to be family reunited to his son Daniel and it was a lot harder.

Immigration Service wrote in their initial refusal that a child must be 6-7 years before it has a connection to the country, which means that refusal to the resident parent’s spouse will have serious consequences for the child.

“It’s a terrible bureaucracy to treat people that way. It makes me ashamed of being a Dane,” Mette Klein says.

Will fight on

Mette and Shaun met for about three years ago when Mette was working in Australia.
The two had only been together a few months when Mette found out she was pregnant upon her return.

They were both wanted to start a family in Denmark and Mette are not willing to give up the dream of raising his children in his homeland.

“Right now I feel just terrible – a whole hotchpotch of emotions. But deep down I still have a faith that we will succeed. We have to fight on, “she says

URL: http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/ECE1198786/editorial-tamilgate-ii/

There is something rotten in Denmark’s State

Where do you have to go if you want to apply for Danish citizenship? To the Immigration Service?

One would certainly think so. But no. The answer is to the police.

As if you were reporting something illegal.

Well; young stateless Palestinians seeking citizenship over the past decade have themselves been treated illegally.

For ten years, the Integration Ministry has systematically ignored United Nations conventions that give young stateless people who are born and raised in Denmark the right to Danish citizenship.

Last year, when Integration Minister Birthe Rønn Hornbech (Lib) had ‘deliberated’ upon the issue – to use her own words – and gave 22 young Palestinians their Danish citizenship, she forgot to carry out her duty to inform other stateless people of their right to citizenship.

It was not until the newspaper Information exposed the issue that things began to happen.

Or did they? The investigation that the Integration Minister promised to initiate was first postponed, and then made into an internal paper, so that not even Parliament could hope to see it.

There is, therefore, no prospect that, in the lifetime of this government, the questions the issue raises will be answered. For example: How is it possible that for years, Integration Ministry civil servants have systematically administered these issues in contravention of the relevant conventions? And how long was Birthe Rønn Hornbech aware of the fact that her administration was acting wrongly before she did something about it?

Hitherto, the minister’s attempts to clarify the issue are hardly of any use.

According to Rønn Hornbech, the mismanagement happened because her officers – who, one should add, are specialists in the field – were unaware of what they were doing. These same officers were, however, able to remember the (UN) conventions in the handbooks they have written about citizenship, and they also seem to have had the conventions in mind in 2009 when they instructed their EU colleagues about the rules.

There is something very wrong here. It is possible for different civil servants to interpret laws and conventions in different ways, or to make one, two or five mistakes. But that is not what happened in this case.

All of the applications for citizenship from stateless Palestinians were rejected. And additionally there are those who did not apply because they had been misled.

There is something seriously wrong in the Integration Ministry.

Perhaps it’s now we cry Tamilgate.

URL: http://politiken.dk/newsinenglish/ECE1198410/unhcr-criticises-denmark/

The UN High Commission for Refugees criticises Denmark for its treatment of stateless people.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has chastised Denmark in connection with its rejection of applications for citizenship by stateless young people, contrary to two UN conventions.

“We have never heard of similar cases of rejections (of citizenship) for stateless people in other countries. At least not in the Nordic region or in Western Europe. And we have never hear of countries failing to inform people about their rights,” says the UNHCR’s Chief Legal Officer on issues of stateless people Liv Feijen.

Feijen reacted to Denmark’s rejection of dozens of applications for citizenship from stateless people between 2004 and 2010, and the fact that it has refrained from informing those who are stateless – some 460 under-21s – of their rights.

“This is a serious flaw in the Danish system. Everyone knows that Palestinians are stateless, and when they are in Denmark, the state has a duty to inform them of their rights – simply to combat the problem,” says Feijen, adding that countries such as Norway, Sweden and Finland have continuously lived up to their international commitments.

The UNHCR has initiated an investigation into the issue in the Nordic region to include a thorough investigation of the Danish system.

The UNHCR statements come in the wake of several weeks of controversy over failures within the immigration system and Integration Ministry. Integration Minister Birthe Rønn Hornbech has previously admitted the rejections were wrong, ‘regrettable’ and ‘a disastrous mistake’.

At the same time Rønn Hornbech has explained the issue as one of forgetfulness and ‘blinkers’ in the ministry’s citizenship office. Twenty-seven of the rejections have been translated into Danish passports.

Under convention rules, any stateless person born in Denmark and under the age of 21 has the right to claim Danish citizenship.

In recent days, the opposition and various experts have raised the issue of the rest of the 460 people, whose legal rights have been set aside.