THE Labour Government haven’t been subtle about their admiration for Denmark’s hardline immigration system.
Since taking office, ministers have repeatedly looked to the Nordic country for inspiration – dispatching Home Office officials last year to study its border and asylum policies, which are seen as some of the toughest in Europe.
Then, in February this year, Shabana Mahmood met with the Danish immigration minister and toured Sjaelsmark – a bleak former military barracks about 20 miles north of Copenhagen which now functions as one of Denmark’s so-called “return centres” – holding men and women whose asylum claims have been rejected and who are expected to leave.
Mahmood toured dormitories where up to 10 people share a room, peered into the canteen, and listened as Danish officials explained the strict curfews and contracts residents must sign.
The visit was not subtle.
Just after, she announced plans to overhaul Britain's own system – bringing in Danish-style policies including making refugee status more explicitly temporary, tighter family reunion rules and, of course, using former military accommodation for asylum seekers.
The first thing Keir Starmer did after Labour won the 2024 General Election was to scrap the Rwanda scheme, a much-condemned Tory policy which allowed the deportation of asylum seekers to the African country.
But now, the new Andy Burnham government is looking into bringing back a similar third country scheme.
“We are also looking at third-country hubs, returns hubs models,” Mahmood recently told The Sun.
Again, it was Denmark that became the first European country to champion offshore asylum processing in 2018.
Bit by bit, Britain is adopting immigration policy that originated or was championed in the Nordic country.
For Labour strategists, it makes sense.
A decade ago, Denmark’s centre-left Social Democrats made a political calculation similar to what UK ministers now face. In the mid-2010s, facing the rise of the far-right anti-immigration Danish People’s Party (DPP), the party brought in some of the harshest immigration policy in Europe.
For them, this worked – from an electoral standpoint at least. They remain in power.
But some of the most radical parts of the Danish model have so far not been hugely discussed in the UK – in public at least.
Beyond their asylum policy lies a more controversial experiment: the so-called “ghetto laws” or “parallel society laws”, which have allowed the Danish state to intervene in neighbourhoods with large immigrant populations.
This has included selling or demolishing apartment blocks where at least half of residents have a “non-Western” background.
The law also mandates that if the areas have high unemployment or crime, authorities have to bring in measures including cutting social housing by 40% and terminating the lease of tenants by 2030.
The Sunday National sent a Freedom of Information (FoI) request to the Home Office earlier this year asking for any briefings, policy notes, analysis papers or emails that reference the Danish law in the context of UK asylum, immigration or integration policy.
It was rejected, with the internal review response – which upheld the initial rejection – confirming that the department holds information relating to our request, but refused to release it as it would “damage the trust and confidence of Danish officials and ministers” and “would limit the UK Government’s ability to engage a key European partner on exchanging migration policy”.
The response also rejected the FoI as it “relates to the development of policies to reform the UK’s asylum system”.
The internal review added: “Disclosure of information relating to the policy development process would undermine the integrity of the policy-making process. I find that it is in the wider public interest to preserve a safe space to outline, debate and consider policy options in private.”
When the Sunday National then asked the Home Office whether this was confirmation that the policy had, at the very least, been discussed, we received no response.
Now, the Scottish Greens have called on the UK Government to “unequivocally rule out” any attempts to mimic this “barbaric” Danish policy.
“A government that claims to believe in equality and human rights should never even contemplate such policies that treat people’s ethnicity or nationality as a reason to dismantle communities, remove them from their homes or deny them equal treatment,” Maggie Chapman told the Sunday National.
The North East MSP added: “This doesn’t just speak to immigration policy, but to the kind of society we choose to build. Diversity is not a problem to be solved – people from different backgrounds living, working and raising their families alongside one another is a strength of our communities and a source of cultural, social and economic richness. The answer to poverty, poor housing or deprivation is investment, decent public services and tackling inequality, not blaming the people who live there because of where their families came from.”
She added: “The language of 'parallel societies' and 'ghettos' is particularly dangerous because it turns structural inequality into an alleged failure of particular groups of people to integrate. It is an invitation to view any and all migrants and refugees not as human beings with rights, but as a problem to be contained, dispersed or removed. It is simply wrong to do so.
“We have seen where this kind of politics leads. Scapegoating marginalised communities for problems created by successive governments' political failures does nothing to improve people’s lives. It only divides people who have far more in common with one another than they have with the wealthy and powerful who benefit from that division.”
Chapman went on: “Human rights do not depend on where you were born, the colour of your skin, your ethnicity or whether you have the right passport. The UK Government cannot pick and choose which people are entitled to dignity, equality and security.
“Labour must rule out the Danish model entirely. And publicly. If ministers believe that their asylum policies are compatible with international human rights law, they should have nothing to hide.
“The Scottish Greens will oppose any attempt to create a two-tier conception of human rights in which some people are deemed less deserving because they are migrants, refugees or members of minority communities. We need politics that brings people together, not politics that manufactures enemies.”
