COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Danish lawmakers voted Tuesday to let police seize valuables worth more than $1,500 from asylum-seekers to help cover their housing and food costs while their cases are being processed.
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The proposal will also allow the authorities to confiscate asylum seekers’ valuables to pay for their expenses.
But opponents compare the law to the Nazi practice of taking valuables from Jews – and the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees warned that the proposals violate a number of treaties on refugees’ and children’s welfare.
The Danish bill is set to pass Tuesday as the minority government of right-leaning Liberals has secured backing from others, including the main opposition Social Democrats and the anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party.
– Police will be able to search migrants’ luggage and seize cash exceeding 10,000 kroner (1,340 euros, $1,450), as well as any individual items valued at more than that amount.
Danish authorities argue that the policy will bring asylum seekers’ situations more in line with those of unemployed citizens, who must sell assets above a certain level to claim benefits.
Jonas Christoffersen, the director of the the Danish Institute for Human Rights, said that the “right of refugees to be reunited with their family is protected by numerous global conventions ratified by Denmark”.
Wedding rings and any other items of sentimental value are exempted.
“It is a sad reflection of how much Denmark has wandered from its historical support of worldwide standards enshrined in the Refugee Convention”, he said.
The UN and other human rights organisations have condemned the legislation, saying it breaks worldwide laws on refugees.
One such measure extended the waiting period for family members of refugees from one to three years.
The Social Democrat party, Denmark’s centre-left opposition, has hit a 50-year low over the refugee crisis, according to a major poll in Denmark.
“We are talking about a real exodus”, said Martin Henriksen, spokesman for the populist Danish People’s Party.
The bill, which is the latest attempt by the center-right government of Denmark to curb the influx of asylum seekers into the country, was passed by a majority of 81 of the 109 lawmakers present at the legislature. The cash and proceeds from the sale of the valuables – such as watches and mobile phones – would be used to pay for the asylum seekers’ stay in Denmark.
Today’s mean-spirited vote in Danish parliament seeks not only to pilfer the possessions refugees cling to, but also to needlessly lengthen their separation from their loved ones. So the criticism that all of a sudden we were doing something wrong we find highly, highly unfair, ‘ he told AFP.
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Amnesty International said the move could ‘have a devastating impact on families, including their rehabilitation from experiences of trauma and their ability to integrate and adapt to life in a new country’.
