Companies cut ties with departure centre, Danish cities to phase out Microsoft, former PM’s paint-splattered jacket goes to museum and more news from Denmark this Tuesday.
Companies cut ties with deportation centre after revelations over low-pay work
Two companies have pulled out of partnerships with the Danish prison service, Kriminalforsorgen, at the Ellebæk Departure Centre after newspaper Dagbladet Information revealed how detained asylum seekers at Ellebæk work for pocket money in order to afford calls to their families via the centre’s coin-operated phone.
Some of the work carried out by residents at the centre is done on behalf of private companies who have agreements with Kriminalforsorgen.
The companies pay a fee per order based on what they would typically pay for equivalent work in Denmark, but the amount received by detainees can be as low as six kroner per hour because the base pay is tied to the rate for work in ordinary Danish prisons, while persons slated for deportation are also required to pay half their wages toward the cost of their future deportation.
Despite the low pay, the money is vital for detainees who want to stay in contact with the outside world using the facility’s payphone, Information reports.
Danish design company Stelton and the Italian water brand San Pellegrino, owned by multinational corporation Nestlé, have both ended their cooperation with Ellebæk in light of the report.
“We can only say: we’re sorry. We acted in good faith,” Jens Beyer, director of Premium Acqua, the official distributor of San Pellegrino and French brand Perrier in Denmark, told Information.
“We simply didn’t know the working conditions at Ellebæk were structured in that way,” he said.
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Danish cities drop Microsoft in response to Trump policies
The city governments in Denmark’s two largest cities Copenhagen and Aarhus have both decided to phase out Microsoft as a provider of various IT systems, newspaper Politiken reports.
Copenhagen Municipality cited financial considerations, concerns over dependency on a near-monopoly, and the geopolitical climate under US president Donald Trump as factors in the decision.
“If, theoretically, relations with the US were to deteriorate, you could be concerned that Microsoft would be forced to shut everything down,” elected official Henrik Appel Espersen, chair of the city’s audit committee. told Politiken.
“That risk is real. And if we suddenly can’t send emails or communicate within our systems, we’re in trouble,” he added.
Aarhus Municipality stated similar reasons for its own decision. Both cities have relied heavily on Microsoft Office programmes and the company’s cloud services, according to Politiken.
Former PM’s paint-covered jacket goes to National Museum
The suit worn by former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen when a protestor threw red paint over him in 2003 is to be added to the collection of Denmark’s National Museum.
“We’ve acquired the suit because it tells a story from a different time and about an event that shaped recent Danish political history, specifically the changes to security arrangements at Christiansborg [parliament, ed.] after the paint attack,” explained Anne-Mette Marchen Andersen, a curator at the museum.
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Red paint was thrown at Fogh as he left a meeting of parliament’s Foreign Policy Committee by a protester who opposed Denmark’s participation in the US-led war in Iraq.
The incident 22 years ago led to stricter rules on entering the parliament building and the introduction of enhanced security patrols.
The suit is not currently part of a planned exhibition but will be placed in storage for potential future use, according to the museum.
Frederiksen says NATO defence spending target ‘too late’
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned regional allies Monday that a NATO target to boost defence spending by 2032 would come “too late”.
At a meeting of Nordic and Baltic NATO members in Lithuania, Frederiksen commented on the proposal to raise defence and security spending to five percent of GDP, as demanded by US President Donald Trump, by 2032.
“I hope that during the NATO summit in The Hague (from June 24 to 26), we will agree on 3.5 percent for the armed forces and 1.5 percent on broader defence”-related spending, Frederiksen told broadcaster DR.
“The question now is whether we will accomplish this before 2032. In my opinion, this is too late,” she said.