Denmark: the former Minister of Integration condemned for a law against migrants

Inger Støjberg, a former Danish minister, on November 18, 2016 in Brussels.

© EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP

Text by: RFI Follow

2 min

Sixty days in prison for Inger Støjberg, a former Danish minister who forcibly separated asylum-seeking couples on the grounds that the wife was a minor.

This is the verdict announced on Monday, December 13 by the Special Court of Justice, which found the minister between 2015 and 2019 guilty of willful violation of the law.

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Minor asylum seekers should not live with their spouse.

This rule, now deemed to be against the law, was dictated by the Minister of Integration in 2016.

23 couples had thus been separated during the examination of their case.

Among them, the young Syrian refugee Rimaz Alkayal, then aged 17, and her husband Alnour Alwan, aged 26.

While the young woman was pregnant, the couple were forced to separate for four months, without their personal situation being assessed - and each being placed in a separate reception structure.

The Minister had been informed by her services of the lack of legal basis for her decision.

A minister against migrants

It is

in Denmark which took place against the former minister.

There have only been three since 1910 targeting a minister for acts committed in the line of duty.

As minister, Inger Støjberg had the property of refugees seized to compensate for state support, and introduced more than 110 amendments to restrict the rights of migrants and asylum seekers.

She celebrated the adoption of the 50th of these amendments by posing on Facebook with a cake decorated for the occasion.

She explains today that the separation of young couples was intended to fight against early marriage.

Inger Støjberg could also lose his mandate as an MP.

She now sits as an independent, having resigned from the conservative Venstre party in February.

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