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Danish police question migrants on Copenhagen streetCredit: Shutterstock 3<\/p>\n Danish PM Mette Frederiksen and Sir Keir Starmer in FebruaryCredit: PA<\/p>\n Hardline policies adopted by the main Social Democrat party stopped a feared political surge from right-wing politicians.<\/p>\n Kaare Dybvad Bek, Denmark\u2019s \u00adMinister for Immigration<\/a> and Integration, says: \u201cWhat we stand very hard on is we don\u2019t grant migrants the right to stay.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re rejected as an asylum seeker, you have a very low possibility of staying in Denmark<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n His country has seen asylum applications plummet by almost 90 per cent over the past decade.<\/p>\n Requests to Denmark<\/a> peaked at 21,316 in 2015. Last year, they dropped to 2,333 \u2014 while the UK total hit a record 108,138.<\/p>\n They got results with a series of tough measures which would cause uproar among left-wing members of the Labour Party<\/a>. These include:<\/p>\n And unlike in the UK, Danish ministers are not afraid to discuss crime<\/a> linked to immigrants.<\/p>\n They publish league tables of criminal convictions based on national origin, which have shown some communities have much higher violent crime rates than the native population.<\/p>\n Denmark also pursued a policy \u2014 like the last Tory government \u2014 of out-sourcing asylum procedures to Rwanda.<\/p>\n Smugglers are ‘offering VIP and first-class dinghies’ for migrants wanting extra legroom<\/p>\n That plan is now on ice as the Danish government tries to get other EU countries to work together to create deportation hubs outside of the bloc\u2019s territory.<\/p>\n Mr Dybvad Bek added: \u201cLast year, we had around a million coming to Europe<\/a> illegally. Two-thirds were migrants and only one third had an asylum claim.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need to put that process outside so that we can control how many we are taking into our countries.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need democratic control of migration.\u201d<\/p>\n Sir Keir Starmer<\/a> met Denmark\u2019s PM Mette Frederiksen in Downing Street<\/a> in February.<\/p>\n Ms Frederiksen is unusual among left-wing leaders, who usually shy away from tough immigration policies \u2014 but her party came to power in 2019 with a promise to clamp down on the influx.<\/p>\n She obliterated the populist Danish People\u2019s Party, reducing their support from 21 to nine per cent.<\/p>\n Her government now pursues a \u201czero refugee\u201d goal \u2014 and recently warned that mass migration is a threat to \u201cdaily life in Europe\u201d.<\/p>\n Last year, Denmark granted a historic low of just 864 asylum requests \u2014 while the UK awarded nearly 68,000 in the year to June.<\/p>\n 3<\/p>\n Denmark’s integration minister Kaare\u2009Dybvad BekCredit: Darren Fletcher<\/p>\n It\u2019s a stark contrast even when you consider the UK population is ten times the size of Denmark\u2019s.<\/p>\n Little wonder, then, that the Labour Government here is now looking at the Scandi country. And Mr Dybvad Bek revealed he is meeting soon with UK counterpart, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper<\/a>.<\/p>\n He suggested Britain could look at the Danish Return Agency, which ensures failed asylum seekers leave.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cThis independent agency is measured by their ability to return people. They returned 95 per cent of cases voluntarily.<\/p>\n \u201cFor rejected asylum seekers, it is really effective. I believe that any country could implement it.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms Cooper is understood to be looking at how Danish courts<\/a> apply Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights<\/a>.<\/p>\n The \u201cright to a family life\u201d has been used repeatedly to block deportations from Britain.<\/p>\n \u2018There was a shooting\u2019<\/p>\n Cases include an Albanian criminal who won the right to stay after claiming his son did not like foreign chicken nuggets.<\/p>\n But Mr Dybvad Bek said: \u201cWe have the same problem. The PM is dedicated to gathering EU countries to change this policy.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have some really violent criminals that we are trying to get out of our country because they are citizens in other countries, but we can\u2019t do it because of Article 8.\u201d<\/p>\n Mr Dybvad Bek fumed that in one case a man had been convicted because he was violent towards his family, but was allowed to stay by claiming the right to a family life.<\/p>\n Denmark does not have the same appeal to migrants, unlike the UK, where they can eventually apply for generous state benefits<\/a> or turn to black market work.<\/p>\n Danish ministers argue that working-class communities are most impacted by immigration, and by slashing it they can protect the welfare system and jobs<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mr Dybvad Bek said their policies have helped people living in housing estates where the pressures of immigration were felt most.<\/p>\n![\"Keir](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/prime-minister-sir-keir-starmer-969207770.jpg\")
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