A railway station in Hungary is swamped by refugees and economic migrants on their way to Northern Europe
Denmark’s right-wing Liberal Party government has slashed benefits for asylum seekers as it seeks to bring down the number of refugees entering the country.
Under new rules, asylum seekers without children will receive less than 1000 euros a month in benefits, almost half of what they previously received. This is about the same level that Danish students are granted to live on in Denmark.
In addition to cutting social benefits the government will also maintain and ensure that:
Foreign nationals granted temporary protection in Denmark will not have the right to bring family members to Denmark during the first year.
Foreign nationals can only be granted a permanent residence permit after 5 years at the earliest. Prior to this they risk having their residence permit revoked.
In order to obtain a permanent residence permit in Denmark there are language requirements in terms of the ability to speak and understand the Danish language.
When an application for asylum is regarded manifestly unfounded it is refused in accordance with a particularly expedited procedure.
All rejected asylum seekers must be returned quickly from Denmark.
There is a special return centre to ensure that rejected asylum seekers leave Denmark as quickly as possible.
Denmark also placed advertisements in four Lebanese newspapers announcing tighter regulations and cuts by up to 50 percent for newly arriving refugees.
So far, more than 350,000 Syrians have lodged asylum claims in Europe, and Denmark expects around 20,000 to arrive at its doors this year.
The Danish government has stated that the measures were in response to strains placed on their welfare, health and education systems caused by large influxes of applicants.
Marcus Knuth integration and immigration spokesman for the government has stated that since the new regulations came into force the number of people travelling through Denmark but not stopping has increased.
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