29-30 September 2011

Thursday 29 September to Friday 30 September 2011

According to experts events of small children being denied residency and separated from their parents, with police knocking on families’ doors to check children’s passports, are increasingly common in Denmark. The immigration lawyer Åge Kramp says the change is due to increases in the police force - an initiative pushed by the Danish People’s Party with the specific objective of enforcing deportations.

• The Copenhagen Post 28 September 2011 (in English)

The city council in Trondheim agreed with the group “Asylum-seekers without asylum” (Asylanter uten asyl i Trondheim) in its application for school and work permits for asylum-seekers who have been denied asylum but cannot return back home. Some of them have lived in Norway for many years and are well integrated into society. The head of the organization, Reza Malaki, is pleased with the backing from the council and that it has promised to forward their requests to the Government. In the meantime, local solutions will be established in Trondheim, so that paperless persons will have the same rights to health care as everyone else.

• Adressa 29 September 2011 (in Norwegian)  

Between 2009 and 2010 the Swedish Migration Board (SMB) launched a reunification project that aimed to find the family members of 480 unaccompanied minors who would be deported or denied asylum. The project failed, however, managing to launch only 26 searches and not being able to find a single family. None of the children have been forced to leave due to SMB’s failure to reunite them with their families.

• Dagens Nyheter 29 September 2011 (in Swedish)
• Svenska Dagbladet 29 September 2011 (in Swedish)
• TV 4 Nyheterna 29 September 2011 (in Swedish)

The Sweden Democrats (SD) claims the state could save 15 billion SEK in 2012 and over 35 billion SEK in 2015, if SD’s immigration policies were to be implemented. The Sweden Democrats wants to reduce asylum and family reunification by 90 per cent and cut back on benefits received by immigrants and refugees in the society. However, Jan Ekberg, professor at the Linnaeus University, says that the Sweden Democrats underestimates society’s benefits from immigration.

• Dagens Nyheter 29 September 2011 (in Swedish)
• Svenska Dagbladet 29 September 2011 (in Swedish)
• Sveriges Radio 29 September 2011 (in English)
• Aftonbladet 29 September 2011 (in Swedish)

Tobias Billström, the Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy criticizes the reception of unaccompanied minors in Region Skåne. According to him, more municipalities should take responsibility for accepting unaccompanied children. Especially Malmö, where there are currently 140 minors waiting to be allocated to other municipalities, is too slow in relocating the children. Billström was in Malmö to discuss the situation of 2,500 unaccompanied minors who are expected to arrive to Sweden this year. 

• Sveriges Radio 28 September 2011 (in Swedish)
• Sydsvenskan 29 September 2011 (in Swedish)