Denmark accused of racism for changing ‘anti-ghetto’ law to aid Ukrainian refugees
▶ Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen puts visiting leader on the spot over continuing conflict
Denmark has been accused of racism after it changed a law barring refugees from certain areas to free up accommodation for people fleeing the war in Ukraine.
The country introduced a policy three years ago that sought to restrict immigrants from moving into “disadvantaged areas”.
This led to some “non-western” people being evicted.
But last week, the Danish government voted to amend this to allow Ukrainian refugees access to the homes. It has pledged to take in 100,000 people fleeing the war.
Susheela Math of campaign group the Open Society Justice Initiative, which opposes forced evictions, said this showed the policy was “racially inequitable and unnecessary”.
The group said the “ghetto package” sought to “physically demolish and transform” largely Muslim areas where many families are classed as “non-westerners”.
“The state’s volte-face on measures such as housing allocations for refugee groups show that the ‘ghetto package’ was clearly meant to target non-white individuals,” Ms Math said.
“These discriminatory measures do not serve any public good and clearly exacerbate the shortage of affordable housing in Denmark.
“Many of the racialised residents being evicted are Danish and identify strongly with their Danish identity, having been born in or lived in these socalled ghetto areas for years.
“These neighbourhoods are their homes. Some of these individuals were refugees themselves and fled conflict and persecution – no differently than Ukrainians now fleeing war.
“The discriminatory treatment that they have been subjected to stands in stark contrast to the rightfully compassionate welcome that Ukrainian refugees have received in Denmark.”
Majken Felle, a resident of Mjolnerparken, a housing project near Copenhagen classified as a “ghetto” area, accused the authorities of racism.
She said a representative from the organisation responsible for redeveloping Mjolnerparken had said in an interview that in such neighbourhoods there is an “Arab mentality”.
Ms Felle is among 12 residents who have filed a lawsuit against the Danish government, seeking a ruling that measures under the ghetto package breach EU laws and the European Convention on Human Rights.
Denmark’s Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, has urged visiting Indian leader Narendra Modi to use his country’s relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin to try to end the war in Ukraine.
“Putin has to stop this war,” Ms Frederiksen said. “I hope that India will influence Russia.”
Mr Modi is on the second leg of a European tour that included a visit to Germany on Monday. He said yesterday’s talks in Denmark centred on an India-EU free trade agreement, Indo-Pacific region matters, as well as the Ukraine conflict.
India’s neutral stance on the war has raised concerns in the West and earned praise from Russian Foreign Minister
Sergey Lavrov, who lauded India for judging “the situation in its entirety, not just in a one-sided way”.
Ms Frederiksen later said that the West should offer India an alternative to Russia.
“In fact, it is quite obvious that we in the West have a completely unequivocal interest in getting India as close to us as at all possible,” Ms Frederiksen said. “[We need] to strengthen our co-operation with other democracies and it does not matter where those democracies are located.
“We need to strengthen our co-operation, especially because there are obviously some very big players who do not recognise democracy at home or globally.”
At the start of Mr Modi’s twoday visit to the Scandinavian country, Denmark and India signed several bilateral agreements that focused on green energy and clean water.
Mr Modi was yesterday set to attend a banquet in his honour with Queen Margrethe, Denmark’s figurehead monarch, at Amalienborg Palace in downtown Copenhagen.
Today, Mr Modi will attend an Indo-Nordic Summit in the Danish capital and also hold bilateral talks with the leaders of Sweden, Norway, Iceland and Finland.
The Indian government’s neutral stance on the war has raised concerns in the West but earned praise from Russia
It was the first visit by an Indian leader to Denmark in two decades.
Mr Modi went to Denmark from Berlin, where Germany and India on Monday signed a
series of bilateral agreements focused on sustainable development that will lead to the South Asian nation receiving €10 billion ($10.5bn) in aid by 2030 to boost the use of clean energy.