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National Assessments
Denmark - Country Assessment Report
10. Interim care – Health – Education and Training (SGP: C10)
Interim Care (SGP: C10.1)
a) Danish social legislation ensures that all children have satisfactory circumstances and receive adequate care. There are no additional rules.
As described earlier, a Danish Red Cross assessor ensuring that the formal guidelines are observed is introduced to the separated child as early as the police registration. After the registration, the child is accompanied to a special refugee centre for children run by the Danish Red Cross.
If there are any compatriots at the refugee centre, be it staff or resident, the compatriot welcomes the child and tells him or her about the centre and the subsequent parts of the procedure. If there are no compatriots, an interpreter is sent for.
The number of staff at refugee centres for children far exceeds that of the regular refugee centres. It consists of Danish teachers and social workers and ethnic employees. The staff have so far not been asked to meet certain educational criteria, although employees with an educational background are preferred. Some of the staff have been employed because they have a good knowledge of the children’s backgrounds, obtained through long sojourns in e.g. Africa or the Middle East. Seminars and courses for all child refugee employees are given on a regular basis by the Danish Red Cross. During the decade that has passed since the first refugee centre for children was established, this organisation has, of course, accumulated extensive expertise within this area.
The refugee centres for children have the adequate resources to provide optimum support and care for the children. Each child has two contact persons who are responsible for that child. The centre also has its own school that teaches Danish and cultural understanding. The refugee centre staff provide the children with interesting leisure time opportunities as well as an in-depth understanding of the society around them.
The refugee centre staff make no effort to establish contact with the children’s ethnic groups. The children do, however, make contact with their compatriots either through other asylum seekers or via the friends that are accommodated with relatives pending their asylum determination.
It is uncertain whether there is a need for specific precautions in the child trafficking and exploitation area, since this area remains inadequately explored, as described earlier.
b) The interim care provided the children by the Danish Red Cross conforms to the standards of the Statement.
c) No alterations are deemed necessary in this area.
Health (SGP:C10.2)
d) Separated children seeking asylum receive the same health care as resident children. They are generally treated as children with special needs.
The Immigration Service collaborates with the Danish Red Cross in the health area so that all refugee centres have nurses attached that manage health care on the premises. If the necessary treatment can not be provided by the nurses, the asylum seeker is referred on in the system. The refugee centres have physicians attached and the refugee centres for children also a psychologist.
Certain kinds of treatment require the prior consent of the Immigration Service. Consent is needed for specific or costly health care such as hospitalisation, institutionalisation, expensive dental care or long-term treatment e.g. specialist care or psychotherapy. In the case of children, consent is in most cases given after medical referral.
Once the children are granted residence permits, they have the same rights as resident children.
e) Denmark thus fully complies with the Statement.
f) Alterations are not deemed necessary.
Education, Language and Training (SGP: C10.3)
g) According to the Aliens Act, asylum seekers under the age of 18 must participate in special classes during the years of compulsory education (ages 7-16).
Special classes accommodating the special needs of asylum seeking children are offered by the Danish Red Cross. The weekly average of classes is 24.
When they have been granted residence permits, the children start attending the regular Danish municipal primary and lower-secondary school. Most cities offer special reception classes that have Danish as well as ethnic staff. The children receive tuition until their knowledge of the Danish language is sufficient for them to be integrated into a regular class. Smaller towns with fewer refugee children usually do not have reception classes. The schools do, however, offer extra support to the children that have to attend the regular classes immediately.
Refugee children also have the right to tuition in their mother tongue. If the children so desire, the schools are required to provide this service. It often proves difficult, however, to provide qualified teachers and to gather enough children of the same nationality so that the tuition does not become too costly. This is of course mainly true for small towns with few refugees. The local authorities in different municipalities often collaborate to provide mother tongue tuition and this often entails much transport for the children.
Separated children and young people have access to the same vocational and professional training possibilities as Danish children.
h) According to Danish legislation, all foreign children have the right to tuition in their mother tongue. In practice, the scheduling of this tuition so that the children may attend easily is, however, problematic. As a result, not all refugee children receive this tuition.
i) Although professionals agree that a well-developed mother tongue is an integral part of the child’s identity and furthermore a prerequisite for learning additional languages, there is political disagreement as to the necessity of this tuition. There are continual attempts to abolish mother tongue tuition and replace it with an increased number of Danish classes. SCE attention should be paid to this area to prevent the abolition of the right to mother tongue tuition.
11. Refugee Determination Process (SGP: C11)
Access to normal procedures (SGP: C11.1)
a) Neither the Aliens Act nor the Refugee Convention contains special provisions on children’s recognition as refugees. The refugee concept is the same for children as for adults and the child’s motive to seek asylum is to be assessed on the same basis as that of the adult.
Separated children may therefore be returned to a "safe third country" and a "safe country of origin" and their applications may be rejected as "manifestly unfounded".
b) This does not comply with the standards of the Statement.
In practice, however, separated children are not treated according to the same asylum legislation as adults, which can be a drawback as well as a benefit.
Separated children under the age of 15 rarely enter the normal determination procedure. The basic assumption is that children under the age of 15 are not capable of expressing a subjective fear of persecution. Instead, the application is treated solely on the basis of the police registration and the child is granted a residence permit due to its status as a separated child, pursuant to Section 9.2.4 of the Aliens Act. Technically, this is not asylum, but immigrant status. The benefit of this rule is that almost all children under the age of 15 are granted residence permits. The drawback is that the children do not receive refugee status even though they may be entitled to it, and that they are thus not granted the rights that this status entails.
Separated children or young people between the ages of 15 and 18 generally enter the normal determination procedure. If asylum is denied, a residence permit according to Section 9.2.4 is automatically considered. A large part of these young people receive residence permits, but if this is not the case, they are subject to the same expulsion as adult asylum seekers. In practice, however, expulsion only occurs when the authorities learn that the child has a residence permit in another country or that he or she has relatives in the country of origin or a third country that could receive the child.
Quite a few young asylum seekers are rejected as manifestly unfounded cases. If the Immigration Service determines that the child does not meet the criteria for asylum or residence permits, the case being manifestly unfounded, the case is referred to the Danish Refugee Council with a recommendation to reject. The Danish Refugee Council has the right of veto and the case subsequently goes to The Refugee Appeals Board.
The Refugee Appeals Board comprises 5 people: The chairman is a judge and the other 4 members are delegates of the Danish Refugee Council, Advokatrådet (the General Council of the Bar), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of the Interior respectively. The decision of the Refugee Appeals Board is final.
As previously stated, there is no doubt that these rules do not conform to the Statement. In spite of the benefits of the automatic residence permits, it would be more appropriate to interview children over the age of 12. This might reveal a genuine basis for asylum or provide the possibility of in-depth interviews disclosing that it would be in the child’s best interest to be reunited with its parents in the country of origin or another country of residence.
The legal rights of the child are ensured with regard to the manifestly unfounded cases, as the Danish Refugee Council has the right of veto, whereupon the case is referred to the Refugee Appeals Board.
Legal Representation (SGP: C11.2)
d) As mentioned in paragraph 3 on the appointment of guardians or advisers, the child is not entitled to legal assistance during the primary treatment of the application. Only if the application has been rejected and the rejection appealed, i.e. the case taken before the Refugee Appeals Board, is an attorney appointed for the child.
e) This is in definite conflict with the Statement, since throughout the determination procedure the child should have an attorney protecting its interests and ensuring that all relevant factors are considered. This is especially unfortunate, inasmuch as no other legal assistance is provided to ensure that the application is treated correctly by the immigration authorities.
f) An attorney should be provided for the child from the onset of the determination procedure to provide optimum protection for the child.
Minimal Procedural Guarantees (SGP: C11.3)
g) The determination procedure and the decision to grant or deny asylum/residence permits to children are handled by the Immigration Service. The case workers have legal training but are not necessarily initially familiar with asylum and refugee cases. For a fair number of the staff, this is their first job after graduating in law. It is to be presumed that they are given competent guidance and that the final decisions are made by people qualified to do so.
Children whose applications are denied have the right to appeal. The appeal is handled by The Refugee Appeals Board, which is an independent legal authority.
Both the Immigration Service and the Refugee Appeals Board have time-consuming procedures. However, due to the extensive criticism of the last few years, the time factor has been greatly reduced and the immigration authorities are attempting to reduce it even further.
h) By and large, the minimal procedural guarantees conform to the Statement. We do wish to underline, however, that the child should have access to legal help throughout the procedures.
i) The procedures in both the primary and the secondary treatment should be less time consuming, especially for young applicants between the ages of 15 and 17, who may be submitted to a waiting period of up to 2 years before a final decision has been made.
Independent Assessment (SGP: C11.4)
j) As mentioned previously, there are no regulations providing independent assessors to ensure that children are able to express e.g. fear of persecution. This also applies to children with handicaps.
According to normal legal practice, however, handicapped children will probably always receive special treatment and care. In practice, this means that handicapped separated children are granted residence permits as a general rule.
k) Denmark does not comply with the Statement as far as providing independent assessment for younger children and handicapped children is concerned.
l) It should be pointed out that Denmark does not meet the standards of the Statement, although these two groups of children receive special treatment, as younger children are granted immigration status residence and handicapped children probably are granted humanitarian status residence.
Interviews (SGP: C11.5)
m) As mentioned earlier, there are no regulations in this area.. Since 1993, however, it has become standard procedure that a Danish Red Cross assessor be present at all interviews the child has with the police or the immigration authorities.
This ensures that the interviews are executed in a friendly, non-hostile atmosphere with any breaks or postponements the child may need. The assessors have been trained and are committed to preventing any and all forms of abuse. They will not hesitate to demand that an interview be terminated or postponed if they deem it to traumatic for the child.
n) Denmark does not comply with the Statement as far as training government officials in child interviewing is concerned. The Immigration Service distributes the cases randomly between the case workers, who presumably have no other training than their degree in law. As mentioned earlier, the child is not appointed an attorney before asylum has been denied and the decision is appealed. Denmark falls short of the standards of the Statement in this area, too.
11o) Even though the child’s legal rights are guaranteed to some extent because of the assessor procedure, the immigration authorities should be made aware of these problems.
Criteria for making a decision on a child’s asylum application (SGP: C11.6)
p) Please refer to earlier paragraphs explaining the lack of refugee legislation especially pertaining to children. They are therefore generally subject to the normal determination process for adults.
As mentioned above, however, in practice special consideration is given to children under the age of 15 and they are generally granted residence permits. The authorities assume that children under this age are not mature enough to enter the normal determination procedure, in part because they are not able to express fear, because they have a limited knowledge of their country of origin and because they are not capable of clearly describing their parents’ or their own motive for seeking asylum.
Applicants over the age of 14 are generally subject to the normal adult procedure. Danish asylum authorities have been aware for some time that especially separated Tamil children from Sri Lanka often flee to avoid compulsory military service with the Tigers. Some young Afghans have fled the Taleban militia in recent years for similar reasons. The authorities have thus been aware that some countries enrol children in armies or rebel groups. The true extent of the problem was hardly known, however, before Save the Children brought attention to the issue of child soldiers through publications, seminars, etc.
It should be noted that not all applicants over the age of 14 who have fled some form of compulsory military service are granted asylum in Denmark. It is especially increasingly difficult for the young Tamils and the current tendency is that only visible signs of torture are grounds for asylum.
q) Denmark conforms to the Statement, primarily because children under the age of 15 are generally granted residence permits.
r) Nevertheless, it should be noted that some of the children that are automatically granted residence permits because of their age and thus obtain immigrant status might be entitled to asylum if the motives for flight were uncovered. Consequently, children as young as 12, perhaps even younger, should be given the chance to enter the normal determination process.
Young people who become adults during the asylum process (SGP: C11.7)
s) The treatment of separated children was severely criticised by the Danish press in 1992. 4 children had all been denied residence as they turned 18 after a processing time of 7, 10, 18 and 31 months respectively. Consequently, the Danish Ministry of the Interior established new guidelines that have not since been modified:
It was underlined that the child’s age at the time of arrival is the determining factor in whether or not the young person is included in the special practice for separated children. The fact that an applicant turns 18 while the application is being processed has no bearing on the case.
t) In this area, Denmark conforms to the Statement.
u) Apart from the fact that the determination process often takes too long, no changes are deemed necessary.
12. Durable Solutions (SGP: C12)
Remaining in a Host Country or Country of Asylum (SGP: C12.1)
Grounds for a Child Remaining in a Host Country (SGP: C12.1.1)
a) Children as well as adults may be granted asylum in Denmark if they are encompassed by the 1951 Refugee Convention.
Children as well as adults may be granted asylum in Denmark even if they are not encompassed by the 1951 Refugee Convention in cases where the applicant can not be expected to return to the country of origin due to well-founded fears of persecution or similar abuse.
Children and adults may be granted residence permits on humanitarian grounds e.g. sickness, weakness or disability.
Children and adults may be granted residence permits on exceptional grounds.
Separated children under the age 15 are generally granted residence permits under this paragraph. The grounds may be the best interest of the child or the lack of success in locating parents or carers.
b) Denmark complies with the Statement.
c) No changes are deemed necessary in this area.
Family Reunification in a Host Country (SGP: C12.1.2)
d) The problems concerning family reunification are described in section C9.
e) Denmark complies with the Statement in the cases where the family resides in another European country. It is currently debated, however, whether the strict Danish regulations concerning family reunification comply with the Convention of the Rights of the Child.
f) It would be desirable if a child was not almost automatically denied reunification with its parents in this country and if the decision was made taking into account all the circumstances of the individual cases.
Integration (SGP: C12.1.3)
g) At each of the refugee centres for children, a member of the Danish Red Cross staff assesses each child carefully in collaboration with that child’s educators with a view to finding the optimum placement. Efforts are made to determine the whereabouts of the parents, whether the child has relatives in Denmark or other European countries, the family situation in the country of origin, school background, mental and physical health and the child’s wishes and hopes for the future.
Until January 1st 1999 the placement of separated children was a joint effort by Save the Children, Danish Red Cross and the Danish Refugee Council. A placement group consisting of one member from each of the organisations was able to place the individual child according to his/her best interests based on the joint knowledge of placement possibilities. This placement group was dissolved as refugee integration was transferred to the local authorities. The placement of separated children is now determined by the Immigration Service as is the distribution of other refugees.
Some of the separated children who arrive in Denmark have relatives in the country. If the relatives are able to accommodate the child, the social authorities determine if placement with the relatives serves the child’s best interests. It is generally considered best for the child to reside with a family that is familiar with the child’s background and parents.
If children under the age of 14 have no relatives in the country, they are often placed in foster families. Foster families of the same nationality as the child are difficult to find, as these families, who are often refugees themselves, might not have the psychological and emotional resources to care for another child or might belong to another clan or belief, so that there is reason to fear that the child would be influenced in a way that would be unacceptable to the child’s family. A separated child placed in a Danish family has obvious advantages: the child soon learns the Danish language, quickly develops an understanding of the community, has access to help and support in terms of education, develops friendships with Danish children more easily and is generally integrated faster than children that reside with foreign families. Unfortunately, those children often lose proficiency in their mother tongue, their culture and identity in the process. Regardless of the effort made by the Danish foster family to respect the child’s background and help it remain Somali, Iraqi, Iranian, they seldom succeed. This may cause psychological problems for the child and render any reunification with the family difficult, be it in Denmark or abroad.
Some separated children under the age of 14 are placed in children’s houses, for instance the 3 Somali house run by Save the Children. The children live in home environments and several of the staff have the same nationality as the children. Life in the children’s houses is modelled as closely as possible on life as the children know it from their countries of origin. They speak Somali, live by the precepts of the Koran and the children remain rooted in their original culture. Eventual reunification with their families is thus facilitated. Unfortunately, there are not enough children’s houses. A greater number of children’s houses should be established e.g. for the Iraqi children who arrive in increasing numbers.
Some young refugees are placed in shared houses. These work on the same principle as children’s houses, but with less staff. The aim is to assist young people in developing independence and a sense of responsibility, enable them to form social and emotional ties and prepare them for bi-cultural lives. The shared houses that were initiated in the early 1990s for the large number of Somalis arriving in Denmark are becoming increasingly multi-ethnic. There is a need for more shared houses, too, where young people may live until they are ready to live independently.
Some young refugees are able to move into residence halls or rented private rooms. In these situations, the social authorities may appoint support staff to provide help with any problems the young person may encounter. This will always be the case if the young person so desires.
Siblings will always be placed together if they so desire. The authorities are reluctant to let older siblings take on responsibility for the younger ones. This only happens after careful assessment and with the necessary support.
As mentioned above, separated children and young people who have been granted residence in Denmark have access to the same education and training, health care and language support as young Danes.
h) Denmark is complying with the Statement.
i) In practice, not all separated children and young people receive optimum support. An increase in children’s houses and shared houses would be desirable. At the same time, an effort should be made to identify more suitable ethnic foster families. As more and more refugee families are integrated into the Danish society, ethnic foster family possibilities are bound to increase.
It is also important to ensure that the placement of the separated children is handled in a professional manner. There is reason to fear that some expertise in this field has been lost since the dissolution of the placement group and the transferral of the placement task to the Immigration Service. Save the Children should become involved again and participate in placements together with the Danish Red Cross.
Save the Children recently solved a placement task concerning 5 separated young people between the ages of 15 and 17. The 2 Iranians, 2 Kosovo-Albanians and 1 Afghan were granted asylum in November/December 1998, but the municipality in which they had been placed was unable to find proper placements for them. In April they asked for Save the Children’s help. The young people were still living in the refugee centre and were reacting violently to the lack of placement. The 2 Iranians now live in youth accommodation, the Afghan and one of the Albanians live with Danish foster families and the second Albanian lives in a private rented room where he is considered a member of the family.
These problems may be initial difficulties, but it is important to monitor the placement procedure. A wrong placement may be disastrous to a separated child.
Adoption (SGP: C12.1.4)
j) There is no special legislation concerning separated children.
In practice, the adoption of separated children is so rare that Save the Children has knowledge of only one case in the course of the decade in which we have been working with these children. A one-year-old girl arrived with a mentally ill aunt, who did not want to care for the child. The aunt had proof that the parents were dead. Shortly after arriving, the girl was placed with a married couple who were initially granted a foster care permit and later, subsequent to the child receiving a residence permit, approved as adoptive parents.
It is generally the case that the families that wish to be foster families for separated children, seldom wish to be adoptive parents. These families often have children of their own and are reluctant to let foster children have the same legal status as their own children, e.g. where inheritance is concerned. This would be the case if the separated child was adopted. The separated child’s parents often still live in the country of origin, or they are missing but not officially reported dead. Unless there is absolute certainty that the parents or other possible carers are dead, a separated child will not be approved for adoption.
The Immigration Service is not aware of any other cases of adoption of a separated child by a resident family.
It can not be ruled out that adoptions do occur later in the integration process. These families are then subject to the same strict regulations concerning adoption as any other Danish citizens who wish to adopt a foreign or a domestic child.
k) Denmark complies with the Statement.
l) No changes are deemed necessary.
Identity and Nationality (SGP: C12.1.5)
m) According to Danish legislation, any person acknowledged as a refugee according to the 1951 Refugee Convention or persons who must be considered to hold the same status may be granted Danish citizenship after 6 years of residence in this country, providing that certain conditions are met.
Children who have arrived before the age of 15 may on some conditions obtain Danish citizenship when they reach the age of 18.
The conditions are that the child has not committed any serious crimes, that it has no debts to the Government and that it speaks and understands enough Danish to be able to enter into an ordinary conversation. Besides they must be willing to give up their original citizenship.
There is no special legislation concerning stateless persons. They are subject to the same conditions as other refugees and may thus apply for citizenship after 6 years of residence, but not sooner than that.
n) Denmark does not comply with the Statement.
o) The responsible authorities should be made aware that stateless persons, including separated children, are entitled to citizenship according to the Convention on the Rights of the Child.
Family Reunification and Returns to a Country of Origin (SGP: C12.2)
Voluntary Return (SGP: C12.2.1)
p) According to Danish social legislation, refugees with asylum or residence permits in this country are eligible for financial assistance towards repatriation..
This rule applies to separated children, too, regardless of which type of residence permit they hold.
The financial assistance may be granted for travel expenses (for persons as well as belongings) and health insurance for one year if this is not already covered by other insurances. Refugees being repatriated may also receive an allowance towards resettlement in the country of origin. For a child this allowance amounts to 5.000 DKK.
Refugees who wish to be repatriated may seek support and guidance at the Danish Refugee Council. So far, very few separated children have expressed a wish to be repatriated. There is thus no established procedure for repatriation. Save the Children has shown the way, though, in providing optimum support for 2 Somali boys who were reunited with their family in Northern Somalia a few years ago.
q) Besides the guidance by the Danish Refugee Council, there is no established procedure.
r) There is no doubt that it is not always in the best interest of the child to remain in Denmark.
As mentioned earlier, trying to localise a separated child’s parents in order to assess whether the child should be returned should be standard procedure for the immigration authorities. The parents often have very unrealistic ideas about the lives the children will lead in Denmark. Besides, many parents still assume that they will automatically be able to follow the child once it has been granted a residence permit.
The repatriation of refugees, including separated children, should be given more attention. It should be underlined, though, that repatriation must always be voluntary.
A new act on repatriation, due to be implemented January 1st 2000, has just been passed by the Folketing (the Danish Parliament). Separated children are not mentioned. As far as separated children are concerned, the only change lies in the allowance for resettlement in a country of origin having been increased to 6.000 DKK.
Conditions that must be fulfilled prior to return (SGP: C12.2.2)
s) Please refer to the paragraph above concerning repatriation.
As we have mentioned, there are no established procedures on helping separated children to be repatriated and therefore no standard list of conditions to be met. The only example known to us is that of the 2 Somali brothers that Save the Children reunited with their parents and siblings in Northern Somalia.
When the boys arrived in Denmark in 1992, they were 4 and 6 years old. After being granted residence permits, they were placed in a Somali children’s house in Copenhagen run by Save the Children. Although they had good daily lives with school, support and care, they never really settled down to life in Denmark. They missed their family and siblings to the degree of being unable to function. Save the Children consequently decided to return the boys to Somaliland, provided that their parents agreed and were able to offer them reasonable circumstances.
The Save the Children refugee consultant located the parents, who were not initially inclined to take the boys back. They lived under very poor conditions and were not sure if they would be able to remain in Somalia. They were surprised to learn that the children were unhappy and that the eldest in particular was so depressed that he was probably headed for institutionalisation in a child guidance clinic. The children had always described their lives in Denmark as wonderful to avoid upsetting their parents.
The parents were very concerned that the children were not thriving, but almost a year passed before they decided to take the boys back. The Save the Children refugee consultant accompanied the children back to Somalia along with 2 other staff members and the boys were reunited with their family after a separation of 5 years. The reunification was a very happy one and the boys soon settled down to life in the family. This success is in part attributable to the fact that the boys spoke Somali with the Somali refugee centre staff and other Somali children throughout their sojourn in Denmark.
Save the Children staff visited the family again a few months later and found the boys thriving and very happy to be back in their own country.
Save the Children has since examined the possibilities for returning more children. The primary condition to be met is that the parents are inclined to take the children back. This is very often not the case. One mother lives on the breadline in a refugee camp in Uganda. Children are obviously not to be returned to such circumstances, so family reunification in Denmark should be the goal.
t) Denmark does not comply with the Statement.
u) This area should be targeted more effectively. Save the Children is examining the possibilities for repatriation for the children residing in children’s houses run by Save the Children, but any attempts to examine these possibilities for other children are random and unorganised. This also applies to young people who arrived as children, but have since reached majority. Young people do have the option, however, of turning to the Danish Refugee Council for an examination of repatriation possibilities.
Programmes and Aid to Facilitate Reintegration (SGP: C12.2.2)
v) There is no legislation or practice in this area.
w) Denmark does not comply with the Statement.
x) The needs for this sort of programme should be examined.
Settlement in a Third Country (SGP: C12.3)
y) There is no law or policy ensuring that a child may be reunified with family members in other European countries or non-European third countries. The family member may apply for the transferral of the child to the country in question, but the authorisation of the transferral depends on an assessment of the individual case and any agreements between the 2 countries. This is particularly grotesque when children on their way to relatives in Sweden are held back at the Danish border. When their asylum application has been treated in Denmark and they have been granted a Danish residence permit, a subsequent move to Sweden is rendered extremely difficult for them.
z) As far as we know, this type of application is most likely to be rejected by the third country.
As there is no standard procedure, Denmark can not be said to live up to the Statement.
zz) Steps should be taken to facilitate settlement in a third country for separated children with family members in that country who are willing and able to care for the child.
13. DATA COLLECTION
The immigration authorities (the Immigration Service) interview the separated children on the background for their asylum application to assess whether the child is entitled to asylum or a Danish residence permit.
At the same time, the Danish Red Cross describes the children’s background as exhaustively as possible to facilitate their subsequent integration in Denmark.
The immigration authorities supply information concerning the country of origin, the family, the motive for flight, the flight itself, etc. – information that is intended solely for the determination procedure.
The Danish Red Cross tries to obtain information on the child’s family and its whereabouts and to ascertain whether the child has any family members in Denmark or other European countries. Efforts are made to clarify how the child lived before the flight, how it was separated from its parents, how it arrived in Denmark and why it is applying for asylum in this particular country. The child’s health, its maturity in relation to the stated age and its school background are described and its own plans and wishes for the future duly noted. This information is gathered with a view to providing optimum support to the child pending the asylum determination and to ensuring the best possible placement if the result is a favourable one.
As far as we know, the information gathered by the immigration authorities as well as by the Danish Red Cross for the stated purposes is not used for any other purposes. When the determination process is concluded and the child is placed, all information is filed.
The immigration authorities are currently compiling statistics on separated children in Denmark. The date of completion has not yet been set.
An internal set of statistics compiled by the Danish Red Cross is available to Save the Children. These statistics are thus not of an official nature and only cover 1997 and 1998 as the data for 1999 has not yet been compiled. Please find these statistics enclosed.
No data has been compiled by the immigration authorities or the NGOs on the rather large groups of separated children that have been living in Denmark for some years now. An investigation of how these children are coping socially and in terms of health and education would be extremely desirable. Funds should be appropriated to such an investigation.
14. INTERNATIONAL INSTRUMENTS
Refugees
According to the UN Information Centre, the Convention has been ratified and the Protocol signed by Denmark. The Handbook and the Guidelines have been adopted.
International Human Rights Instruments
According to the UN Information Centre, Denmark has signed the Declaration of Human Rights and acceded to all other conventions and protocols under paragraph 14.2.
Children – International and Regional Instruments
The Convention on the Rights of the Child was ratified by Denmark in 1991.
According to the UN Information Centre, Denmark has signed the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice and the UN Rules for the Protection of Juveniles Deprived of Their Liberty.
According to the Treaty Office under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark has not ratified the 2 European Conventions passed by the Council of Europe mentioned under paragraph 14.3.
The Hague Conference on Private International Law:
According to the Treaty Office under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark has ratified the Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction and the Convention on Protection of Children and Co-operation in Respect of Intercountry Adoption.
However, Denmark has not ratified the other 2 Hague conventions mentioned here.
The European Union
According to the EU Information Centre of the Danish Parliament, Denmark has by virtue of its EU membership passed Joint Action to Combat Human Trafficking and the Sexual Exploitation of Children as well as the Council Resolution on unaccompanied minors who are nationals of third countries. The office is unable to inform us of the extent to which Denmark has implemented this resolution.
Europe
According to the EU Information Centre of the Danish Parliament, Denmark has passed the 3 conventions mentioned. The Schengen Convention has not yet been ratified, however.
The European Union
According to the EU Information Office of the Danish Parliament, Denmark has by virtue of its EU membership passed all resolutions, etc. The office is unable to inform us whether they have been implemented.
The Council of Europe
According to the Danish European Movement, whose job it is to update all information concerning the Council of Europe, Denmark has signed the European Social Charter including the recommendations 564 (1969) and 984 (1984).
Copenhagen, June 1999/ BJ
15. STATISTICS FOR SEPARATED CHILDREN SEEKING ASYLUM
Table 1.
Arrivals 1997 1998
Girls 59 (32%) 55 (24%)
Boys 125 (68%) 175 (76%)
Total 184 (100%) 229 (100%)
Table 2.
National distribution of arrivals in 1998:
Iraq 42
Sri Lanka 39
Afghanistan 20
Kosovo 19
Somalia 18
Others 91
Total 229
Arrivals from the following nations among others: Algeria, Armenia, Bosnia, Ethiopia, Georgia, Iran, China, Lebanon (stateless Palestinians), Nigeria, Pakistan, Rumania, Russia, Turkey (Kurdistan).
Table 3.
Transfers, rejections and disappearances in 1998
Transfers to The Danish Refugee Council 113 (a)
Rejections and disappearances 119 (b)
a): Asylum seekers that have received asylum may have arrived in 1996, 1997 and1998
b): Some young asylum seekers disappear. They go under ground or travel to other countries.
STATISTICS
DANISH RED CROSS ASYLUM DEPARTMENT
NAME OF COUNTRY, NUMBER
Afghanistan 20
Albania 1
Algeria 8
Armenia 4
Bangladesh 2
Bosnia-Herzegovina 7
Cameroon 2
Georgia 1
Ghana 1
India 8
Iraq 42
Iran 10
Yugoslavia 1
China 2
Kosovo 19
Croatia 2
Lebanon 1
Macedonia 1
Nigeria 1
Russia 3
Senegal 1
Serbia 2
Sierra Leone 1
Somalia 18
Sri Lanka 39
Palestine 8
South Africa 1
Syria 1
Tadsjikistan 1
Tetjenia 1
Turkey 2
Unknown 15
Vietnam 3
TOTAL 229