In recent weeks, the Danish government have faced political opposition and both national and international criticism of its plans to deport refugees to asylum centres in Rwanda.
The Danish government was harshly criticized by the African Union, when it condemned the decision to relocate refugees to countries outside of Europe, in a press release from 2nd of August. The press release called the plans xenophobic and unacceptable, and it made points about the Refugee Convention of 1951 and the obligations upon Denmark to adhere to it.
It appears that the plans of the Danish government will be halted, as a press release with such a rhetoric is a collective rejection.
Comment:
The plans to deport refugees to Rwanda began in late April when the Danish government introduced a bill to send refugees to asylum centres abroad.
Before the bill was introduced, the Danish Minister of Integration, Mattias Tesfaye and the Minister for Development Aid, Flemming Møller Mortensen, signed two co-operation agreements with Rwanda regarding co-operation on refugee policy, and therefore Rwanda were chosen as the country to receive the rejected refugees being deported from Denmark.
Denmark was in dialogue with a handful of African countries regarding co-operation on asylum policies. Without the least amount of morality, the Danish government claimed that a policy of deporting refugees to other countries would be a more humane way of conducting asylum policies. The bill was finally passed on the 2nd of June 2021 by majority vote in the Danish parliament.
As for the Rwandan regime, it is known for arbitrary arrests and torture of critics. Most recently, 17 international media outlets, including The Guardian reported that Rwanda is one of several other dictatorial regimes to have purchased surveillance software from the Zionist technology company NSO Group. It is a spyware that can monitor an array of features on smartphones and therefore monitor users of them. The software is used for espionage of regime critics in several countries and has assisted regimes in abusing journalists and activists. The company’s espionage software has even been involved in the well-known case of the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The African countries, and specifically Rwanda were meant to be used as a destination for the inhuman repatriation policy of the Danish government. The Danish government contradicts its claims of so-called tolerance and valuing of human rights with the attempts to expel refugees to a country, which does not guarantee security to political opponents, critics, or refugees.
The spiteful policies of the Danish government have nothing to do with the wellbeing of refugees and it is not a point of interest for it. However cynical and dirty its means are, their policy is centred around sending refugees back to death and persecution, making life as troublesome for them as possible in the process, in line with the rising and continuous Islamophobia from politicians, political parties, and the media.
The real ugly and inhuman face of the democratic and liberal Europe has been exposed for everyone to see.
Younes Piskorczyk