Asylum seeker admissions have been reduced to historic lows in Denmark after it implemented a “zero refugee” policy, despite the country being ruled by a government of social democrats. Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Fredericksen has supported a tougher asylum seeker policy since coming into power in 2019, and has now managed to reduce approved asylum applications to just 860 last year.
Kaare Dybvad Bek, Denmark’s immigration minister, called the figure “historic,” making Denmark one of the countries that approved the fewest asylum seekers in the European Union in 2024. The EU member received a total of 2,500 asylum requests last year, while neighboring Germany received over 213,000 applications.
Denmark has also been at the forefront of European countries pushing for better migrant integration. In 2023, the country began destroying migrant no-go zones in an effort to stop the growth of parallel societies.
Vollsmose, a suburb of the city of Odense, was destroyed, with the migration-background residents later relocated to different parts of the city with lower populations of people from non-Danish backgrounds.
Other countries have also begun adopting policies similar to Denmark’s to reduce immigration and asylum claims. In Sweden, for instance, a right-wing government backed by populists claimed last year that more migrants had left Sweden than entered.
However, some noted that the Swedish claim may have been exaggerated, with the statistics possibly a result of the Swedish Tax Registry clearing its books of people who had already left Sweden.
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