The Danish parliament on Wednesday debated a controversial plan to seize refugees’ valuables, with the bill widely expected to pass after being backed by a majority of lawmakers.
The bill has been condemned by the UN refugee agency, which fears it could fuel xenophobia, while international media have compared the searches to Nazi Germany’s seizing of gold and valuables from Jews and others during World War II.
“Refugees have lost their homes and almost everything they possess, it beggars belief that somebody would want to strip them away from the little they have managed to salvage from their lives,” UN High Commissioner for Refugees spokesman William Spindler said.
The proposal would allow Danish authorities to seize asylum seekers’ cash exceeding 10,000 kroner (US$1,456), as well as any individual items valued at more than 10,000 kroner.
Wedding rings would be exempt, along with other items of sentimental value, such as engagement rings, family portraits and medals.
A vote on the proposal is scheduled to be held on Jan. 26.
Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen’s right-wing government has faced a wave of criticism over its plan, and to secure the backing of other ministers it agreed to amend the bill by raising the amount of cash a refugee can keep from an initially proposed 3,000 kroner to 10,000.
It reached an agreement on Tuesday with other parties in parliament to secure a majority for the upcoming vote.
The Scandinavian nation has some of Europe’s strictest immigration policies and has repeatedly tightened its regulations in recent months to deter foreigners from seeking a new life in the nation.
However, the bill, even in its amended form, came under fire again on Wednesday by a group of 10 local and regional members of Rasmussen’s ruling Venstre party.
“It is not just a matter of proper policy and humanity, but also Denmark’s international reputation,” they wrote in the Berlingske daily.
In a near-empty parliament on Wednesday, Danish Minister of Integration Inger Stojberg said there had been “some criticism and many, many misunderstandings — maybe also sometimes deliberate misunderstandings.”
The main spokeswoman for the leftist Red-Green Alliance, Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen, said it was “rather unclear what jewelry is going to be snatched from the refugees” and that the aim of the proposal was simply to tell the world “that Denmark is not a nice place to be.”
Danish Social Democratic lawmaker Dan Jorgensen defended what he called a “compromise” solution hammered out “in a difficult situation.”
Denmark, a nation of 5.4 million, received 21,000 asylum applications last year, compared to 163,000 in Sweden, home to 9.8 million people.
EU Vice President Frans Timmerman said the 28-nation bloc would examine the Danish plan “once the law is adopted and ... then give our official position to the Danish government.”
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of