Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration Mattias Tesfaye (S) has decided that Denmark will accept 200 quota refugees from Rwanda.
In the Finance Act, money was otherwise set aside to receive 500 quota refugees. However, Mattias Tesfaye believes that the integration challenges remain too great to accommodate such a large number:
– We have decided to only accept 200 quota refugees. This is because we continue to face major integration tasks.
Some refugees have settled well in Denmark. But far too many are still on cash benefits. In fact, five out of six refugee women are still out of the labor market after three years in Denmark. It is very, very expensive and totally unsustainable. That is why I proceed cautiously, says Mattias Tesfaye.
According to figures from the Ministry of Immigration and Integration Affairs, 36 per cent of the 21-64-year-old refugees and family reunified were in work after three years in Denmark. That figure is calculated on the basis of the first quarter of 2020.
Among men, the share in employee employment was 57 percent in the first quarter of 2020, while the share was 17 percent among women.
In the government’s support party SF, Denmark would have preferred to receive 500 quota refugees. However, SF’s foreign and integration spokesman, Carl Valentin, is satisfied that Denmark is once again accepting quota refugees.
The scheme was changed under the VLAK government, where the then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration Inger Støjberg refused to accept quota refugees. This was done with reference to the fact that in those years Denmark received many spontaneous asylum seekers from, among others, Syria.
– We would have preferred Denmark to accept 500 quota refugees again. But at the same time I would also like to say that it has required huge arm wrestling with the Social Democrats to get here at all, says Carl Valentin.
The Radical Left also wants Denmark to take the 500 quota refugees that have been budgeted for instead of the 200 that the government plans to receive. This is what Andreas Steenberg, who is the spokesman for foreigners in the Radicals, says.
Source: jyllands-posten.dk
