Ministerial report: Rising number of refugees withdrawing from Denmark; this is the government's comment.
According to the Danish news agency Ritzau, a new statement from the Ministry of Immigration and Integration shows that in 2021 Denmark fell to 20th place on the list of EU countries with the largest number of asylum seekers.
This is the lowest ranking since the survey was first conducted in 2008.
Denmark's highest ranking was in 2014 when the country came in fifth, having received a larger proportion of asylum seekers, but in the years that followed, Denmark fell to the bottom of the list.
Minister for Immigration and Integration Kaar Dybvad Bakke believes the figures show that the government has kept its campaign promise, made before Danes went to the polls, regarding a strict policy and a low influx of refugees.
According to the statement, the Minister for Foreigners and Integration commented on the report, saying: “This ensures that we can slowly correct decades of failed integration policies.”.
According to the source, Cyprus, Malta, Greece, Austria and Germany occupy the top five positions on the list of EU countries with the largest number of asylum seekers, with Hungary ranking 27th, followed by Estonia, Slovakia, Latvia and Portugal, while neighboring Sweden ranks 11th.
The Minister for Immigration and Integration told Avisen Danmark that he hoped Denmark would become an unpopular destination for asylum seekers in the coming years, and expressed that he would be happy if Denmark was at the bottom of the list.
According to Nina Nyborg Sørensen, a researcher in international migration and refugees at the Danish Institute of International Studies, part of that decrease in the proportion of refugees can be attributed to the foreign policy pursued in Denmark since 2014. She also indicated that the various tightenings in immigration policy and the large negative propaganda have had an effect, so we see that some asylum seekers who can legally reside in Denmark are choosing to go elsewhere.
