The UK home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, and Danish immigration officials strode through the bleak and chilly Sjælsmark returns centre, a former military barracks used to house men and women who have no right to remain in the country. Followed by photographers, reporters and civil servants, Mahmood was told of the strict conditions in which hundreds of people live after asylum and right to remain appeals are rejected and before many are sent to other countries.
Sjælsmark, about 20 miles north of Copenhagen, is at the sharp end of an asylum system set up by Denmark’s left-leaning Social Democrat government to deter claimants. As well as those facing swift deportations, refugees are given temporary permission to stay and will later be told to leave if their countries of origin are deemed safe.
