ISFE calls on European gambling authorities to tackle online skin betting
▻https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-04-16-isfe-calls-on-european-gambling-authorities-to-tackle-onli
Comments come following move by Danish Gambling Authority to block 15 skin betting websites
]]>Carne da cannone. In Libia i profughi dei campi sono arruolati a forza e mandati a combattere
Arruolati di forza, vestiti con vecchie divise, armati con fucili di scarto e spediti a combattere le milizie del generale #Haftar che stanno assediando Tripoli. I profughi di Libia, dopo essere stati trasformati in “merce” preziosa dai trafficanti, con la complicità e il supporto del’Italia e dall’Europa, sono diventati anche carne da cannone.
Secondo fonti ufficiali dell’Unhcr e di Al Jazeera, il centro di detenzione di Qaser Ben Gashir, è stato trasformato in una caserma di arruolamento. “Ci viene riferito – ha affermato l’inviato dell’agenzia Onu per i rifugiati, Vincent Cochetel – che ad alcuni migranti sono state fornite divise militari e gli è stati promesso la libertà in cambio dell’arruolamento”. Nel solo centro di Qaser Ben Gashir, secondo una stima dell’Unhcr, sono detenuti, per o più arbitrariamente, perlomeno 6 mila profughi tra uomini e donne, tra i quali almeno 600 bambini.
Sempre secondo l’Unhcr, tale pratica di arruolamento pressoché forzato – è facile intuire che non si può dire facilmente no al proprio carceriere! – sarebbe stata messa in pratica perlomeno in altri tre centri di detenzione del Paese. L’avanzata delle truppe del generale Haftar ha fatto perdere la testa alle milizie fedeli al Governo di accordo nazionale guidato da Fayez al Serraj, che hanno deciso di giocarsi la carta della disperazione, mandando i migranti – che non possono certo definirsi militari sufficientemente addestrati – incontro ad una morte certa in battaglia. Carne da cannone, appunto.
I messaggi WhatsUp che arrivano dai centri di detenzione sono terrificanti e testimoniano una situazione di panico totale che ha investito tanto i carcerieri quanto gli stessi profughi. “Ci danno armi di cui non conosciamo neppure come si chiamano e come si usano – si legge su un messaggio riportato dall’Irish Time – e ci ordinano di andare a combattere”. “Ci volevano caricare in una camionetta piena di armi. Gli abbiamo detto di no, che preferivamo essere riportato in cella ma non loro non hanno voluto”.
La situazione sta precipitando verso una strage annunciata. Nella maggioranza dei centri l’elettricità è già stata tolta da giorni. Acque e cibo non ne arrivano più. Cure mediche non ne avevano neppure prima. I richiedenti asilo sono alla disperazione. Al Jazeera porta la notizia che ad Qaser Ben Gashir, qualche giorno fa, un bambino è morto per semplice denutrizione. Quello che succede nei campi più lontani dalla capitale, lo possiamo solo immaginare. E con l’avanzare del conflitto, si riduce anche la possibilità di intervento e di denuncia dell’Unhcr o delle associazioni umanitarie che ancora resistono nel Paese come Medici Senza Frontiere.
Proprio Craig Kenzie, il coordinatore per la Libia di Medici Senza Frontiere, lancia un appello perché i detenuti vengano immediatamente evacuati dalle zone di guerra e che le persone che fuggono e che vengono intercettate in mare non vengano riportate in quell’Inferno. Ma per il nostro Governo, quelle sponde continuano ad essere considerate “sicure”.
▻https://dossierlibia.lasciatecientrare.it/carne-da-cannone-in-libia-i-profughi-dei-campi-sono-a
#Libye #asile #migrations #réfugiés #armées #enrôlement_militaire #enrôlement #conflit #soldats #milices #Tripoli
TreeHugger
▻https://www.treehugger.com/green-food/denmark-wants-make-climate-impact-labels-mandatory-food.html
Denmark has apparently been working with the European Union for ten years to develop a climate impact label for food, but after the International Panel on Climate Change published its jarring report earlier this month, stating that extreme measures are required within the next 12 years if global warming is to be kept below 1.5C, the Danish government included food labelling in its 38-point plan for a greener future, issued the same week as the IPCC report.
]]>Winner of prestigious Israeli award to donate prize money to human rights organizations
Feminist and scientist Evelyn Fox Keller, a former professor at MIT, will give her Dan David Prize money to anti-occupation organization B’Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Physicians for Human Rights
Haaretz.com | Amira Hass May 07, 2018 8:11 AM
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-winner-of-dan-david-prize-to-donate-proceeds-to-fight-occupation-1
One of the winners of this year’s Dan David Prize plans to give the prize money to three Israeli human rights organizations.
Prof. Evelyn Fox Keller, one of nine people who received the award at Tel Aviv University Sunday night, will give the money to B’Tselem, the Association for Civil Rights in Israel and Physicians for Human Rights.
The scientist and feminist thinker told Haaretz that the moment she found out she had won the prize, she decided she could accept it only if she gave the money to organizations combating Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.
In a written statement to Haaretz on Sunday, the 82-year-old, who last taught at MIT wrote, “I am deeply grateful to the Dan David Foundation both for the honor conferred by the prize, and for the opportunity it provides me to support those elements of Israeli society committed to peaceful coexistence and to the protection of human rights for all.”
Asked why she didn’t just refuse the prize, since it is granted by an Israeli university which is part of the system and doesn’t criticize it, she replied, “I didn’t see it that way. I am accepting the prize in support of people who resist the system. I didn’t see what would be served by turning it down. As a political statement, it is stronger if I take the prize and give it away.”
The interview with Fox Keller took place last Thursday, less than 24 hours after she landed in Israel. She said she decided to announce her plans for the prize money through this interview rather than during the ceremony because “I didn’t want it to be a ‘fuck you’ statement. I don’t want to be the focus of the night.”
On Saturday, she revealed her plans to her two co-winners in the “Past – History of Science” category, Prof. Lorraine Daston of Berlin’s Max Planck Institute for the History of Science and Prof. Simon Schaffer of Cambridge University. The other six winners were in the categories of “Present – Bioethics” and “Future – Personalized Medicine.” The $3 million purse will be evenly divided among the nine of them.
The prize, named for the international entrepreneur and philanthropist who established it, is granted annually “for achievements having an outstanding scientific, technological, cultural or social impact on our world,” according to its website. Fox Keller won for “pioneering work on language, gender, and science” which “has been hugely influential on shaping our views of the history of science.” Her research specialties are theoretical physics, mathematical biology, feminist thought and history of science.
The website’s reference to her “pioneering work” refers to her discovery of the degree to which modern scientific thought and its depiction of natural phenomena were shaped by patriarchal ideology and language. For instance, biologists searched for a “master” molecule – a dominant molecule that would operate an entire system – rather than recognizing the cooperation and self-organization of the various component parts.
Christina Agapakis, a biologist and founding editor of “Method Quarterly,” wrote in her introduction to an interview with Fox Keller in 2014, “Throughout her career she has pushed the boundaries of science, confidently crossing the borders that separate disciplines and breaking down the barriers keeping women out of the highest reaches of scientific achievement.”
Asked whether she thought Israeli universities should speak out against infringements on Palestinians’ academic freedom — such as Israel’s refusal to let students from the Gaza Strip study in the West Bank and obstacles it places before foreign academics and students who wish to teach or study in the occupied territories — Fox Keller responded, “Of course I think they should, but they don’t. And they don’t want to and don’t have a voice.”
It’s not just Tel Aviv University that “doesn’t have a will,” she added. “None of the universities in Israel have a will.”
Her last visit here was 10 years ago, when she was hosted by the Weizmann Institute of Science. She said she was shocked by the changes in her friends, who used to consider themselves liberals and socialists, yet had no idea what was happening in the Palestinian territories under Israeli rule.
“The biggest change is probably the children, the effect the army had,” she said.
“I said [then that] Israel makes me ashamed of being a Jew,” she added. “Yes, I feel the same today.”
Asked why she should feel that way, since she’s an American Jew rather than an Israeli, she replied, “It was just a gut response. I cannot defend it ... [except to say that] my political commitments are whatever remains of my Jewish leftist heritage.”
]]> Le bailleur très social de la MEL expulse ses syndicalistes Par Elsa Sabado - 4 mai 2018 - Mediacites
▻https://www.mediacites.fr/lille/enquete-lille/2018/05/04/le-bailleur-tres-social-de-la-mel-expulse-ses-syndicalistes
Soliha, l’association qui loge les familles les plus pauvres de la métropole lilloise, mène une restructuration à la hache après avoir frôlé la faillite. Des élus du personnel figurent en bonne place dans les plans sociaux. Une plainte pour discrimination syndicale est sur le point d’être déposée.
Où est passée la quinzaine d’élus syndicaux de Soliha présents autour de la table lors de la négociation du PSE de 2015 ? » Stéphane Ducrocq, avocat en droit social au barreau de Lille, fait mine de s’interroger. Mais c’est pour donner aussitôt la réponse : « Aujourd’hui, il en reste deux, dont l’une est sous le coup d’une menace de licenciement. En vingt ans de métier, c’est la première fois que je vois cela, c’est un record absolu. » Il s’apprête d’ailleurs à déposer une plainte pour discrimination syndicale dans les prochains jours. Depuis 2013, les dossiers de salariés de l’association s’entassent sur son bureau.
Pendant très longtemps, ils sont venus travailler au « PACT » (propagande et action contre les taudis), l’ancien nom de Soliha, par conviction, voire par militantisme. Le PACT réhabilite l’habitat dégradé et y loge la population trop pauvre pour prétendre aux HLM. Dans le Nord, c’est un grand patron du textile, Ignace Mulliez, qui en est à l’origine, au sortir de la seconde guerre mondiale. « L’association, qui permettait au départ à la grande bourgeoisie lilloise d’encadrer le sous-prolétariat, est peu à peu devenue un opérateur de politiques publiques, désormais aux mains de la Métropole. C’est le dernier filet de sécurité avant la rue ou l’hébergement d’urgence », explique Antonio Delfini, sociologue spécialiste des questions urbaines dans l’agglomération lilloise. Il y a des équipes techniques qui rénovent le bâti, et des travailleurs sociaux qui dépatouillent les situations des ménages. ». « Soliha, ce n’est pas n’importe quelle association, c’est un acteur principal de la politique de logement de notre Métropole »
Les taudis sont préemptés par les mairies de la MEL qui les transmettent au PACT afin qu’il les restaure. A son apogée, le PACT Métropole Nord possédera jusqu’à 4200 logements. Soit la moitié du patrimoine de la fédération de tous les PACT de France ! Des maisons ou des appartements financés à 100 % par l’argent public, qu’il s’agisse de ventes à l’euro symbolique, de subventions ou d’aides à la pierre. « Soliha Métropole Nord, ce n’est pas n’importe quelle association et dans la politique de logement de notre Métropole, c’est un acteur principal. L’ensemble de nos villes ont utilisé, utilisent, ou utiliseront les services de cette association qui s’adresse aux familles les plus en difficulté et qui les aide à trouver un logement décent », déclamait Max-André Pick, élu LR de Roubaix lors d’une discussion à la MEL le 24 juin 2016. Pour accomplir sa mission, l’association a employé jusqu’à 280 personnes. Mais des années de graves difficultés financières ont ramené les effectifs à 228 salariés en 2016.
Le profil très fragile des locataires de Soliha, ex Pact Métropole Nord (PMN)
Depuis le 15 décembre 2017, il faut soustraire deux personnes de plus, deux employées du service comptable depuis respectivement 12 et 29 ans. Elles ont la surprise, ce matin là, de voir arriver dans leur bureau Dany Colomb, la DRH de l’association. Celle-ci leur demande de réunir leurs affaires et de la suivre dans son bureau. Elles en ressortiront mises à pied à titre conservatoire avant un entretien en vue de leur licenciement pour faute grave, encadrées et raccompagnés jusqu’à la sortie par trois membres de la direction. « J’avais l’impression d’être une terroriste. J’étais dans l’incompréhension totale, raconte l’une des deux licenciées. Et les collègues, pareil. Ils pensaient que la direction allait tomber d . . . . .
La suite est payante.
#Lille #logement #PACT #Soliha #HLM #Ignace_Mulliez #MEL #taudis #associations #licenciements
]]>In landslide vote, Denmark excludes settlements from agreements with #Israel - Israel News - Haaretz.com
▻https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium-denmark-approves-exclusion-of-settlements-from-agreements-with-isr
The resolution passed by a majority of 81-22, with all parties in the Danish parliament voting in favor, except for the far-right Danish People’s Party.
]]>Denmark will increase defense spending to counter Russia : PM
RIGA (Reuters) - The Danish government expects to win backing for a substantial increase in defense spending next month, to counter Russia’s intensified military activity in eastern and northern Europe, the NATO-member’s prime minister said Monday.
Denmark last week deployed 200 troops to a UK-led NATO mission in Estonia aimed at deterring Russia from attacking the Baltic NATO members.
▻https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-security-denmark/denmark-will-increase-defense-spending-to-counter-russia-pm-idUSKBN1F42LT
#Danemark #armée #armes #armement #Russie #Estonie #pays_baltes
cc @reka
–-> un petit air de guerre froidre
Offshore Wind Farms Offer Subsidy-Free Power for First Time - Bloomberg
▻https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-04-13/germany-gets-bids-for-first-subsidy-free-offshore-wind-farms
German’s electricity grid regulator approved bids to build what will be the first offshore wind farms that depend entirely on market prices instead of government support and subsidy.
The decision by Bundesnetzagentur, or BNetzA, grants power purchase agreements for 1,490 megawatts of wind farms to be built in the North Sea. Developers promised to supply power from the facilities at a record-low weighted average of 4.40 euros ($4.67) a megawatt-hour, less than a tenth of the previous offshore wind deal, the regulator said Thursday.
The bids were “far below any expectations,” said BNetzA President Jochen Homann. They’re well beneath the market price for power in Germany, which has fallen 3.8 percent this year to 30.10 euros a megawatt-hour, according to broker data compiled by Bloomberg.
]]>Somaliland:DRC scales up response in #Somaliland to avert possible #famine
The drought situation in Somaliland continues to get worse following consequent poor rainy seasons. There are growing fears that the country could face a famine, which would have devastating impact on the population. The Danish Refugee Council is currently scaling up its response in various areas in Somaliland with anticipation to reach more than 16,000 drought-affected households.
▻http://www.horndiplomat.com/2017/03/21/somalilanddrc-scales-up-response-in-somaliland-to-avert-possible-famin
#sécheresse
Sahara’s forgotten refugees
A 28-year-old woman, born and raised in the #Dakhla refugee camp, is seeking to re-define her identity and create a better life for her and her family. With help from the Danish Refugee Council, she is now an entrepreneur with a festive idea.
▻http://reliefweb.int/report/algeria/sahara-s-forgotten-refugees
#Sahara_occidental #réfugiés #asile #migrations #camps_de_réfugiés
UNHCR and DRC launch the “Study on the onward movement of refugees from Ethiopia”
Acknowledging the issue of refugees pursuing dangerous journeys from Ethiopia to seek improved services and a durable solution to their plight elsewhere, UNHCR commissioned a study to the Danish Refugee Council (DRC).
Pour télécharger le #rapport:
▻http://www.unhcr.org/afr/wp-content/uploads/sites/5/2016/12/Study-on-the-Onward-Movement-of-Refugees-from-Ethiopia.pdf
cc @reka
Denmark drops plans to send migrants to Hungary
Some 350 asylum seekers were told over the weekend that the Danish Immigration Service (Udlændingestyrelsen - DIS) will not send them back to Hungary as previously suggested, Politiken reported.
▻http://www.thelocal.dk/20161205/denmark-drops-plans-to-send-migrants-to-hungary#
#Danemark #Dublin #renvoi #Hongrie #asile #migrations #réfugiés
The North Pole is an insane 36 degrees warmer than normal as winter descends
►https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/11/17/the-north-pole-is-an-insane-36-degrees-warmer-than-normal-as-winter-
At the same time, one of the key indicators of the state of the Arctic — the extent of sea ice covering the polar ocean — is at a record low. The ice is freezing up again, as it always does this time of year after reaching its September low, but it isn’t doing so as rapidly as usual.
In fact, the ice’s area is even lower than it was during the record-low 2012:
]]>Danish suspension of resettlement – worst possible decision at the worst possible time – Op-ed by Danish Refugee Council
However, the reality of the Danish policies on resettlement does not reflect any such commitment. In fact, the Danish government has announced a suspension of resettlement under the UNHCR resettlement programme. The initiative came in the context of a broader list of actions to reduce the number of asylum seekers arriving in Denmark. At a time of a global displacement crisis with more than 65 million in forced displacement this vital effort is now suspended for a period of at least 3-4 years.
▻http://www.ecre.org/danish-suspension-of-resettlement-worst-possible-decision-at-the-worst-possibl
#Danemark #asile #migrations #réfugiés #réinstallation #suspension #arrêt
BAE Systems Sells Internet Surveillance Gear to United Arab Emirates
▻https://theintercept.com/2016/08/26/bae-systems-sells-internet-surveillance-gear-to-united-arab-emirates
A Danish subsidiary of British defense contractor BAE Systems is selling an internet surveillance package to the government of the United Arab Emirates, a country known for spying on, imprisoning, and torturing dissidents and activists, according to documents obtained by Lasse Skou Andersen of the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information. The documents from the Danish Business Authority reveal an ongoing contract between the defense conglomerate, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence A/S, and the (...)
#BAE_Systems #surveillance #surveillance #surveillance #écoutes
]]>1960s & 70’s Cuban Movie Posters
▻http://www.juxtapoz.com/news/design/1960s-a-70s-cuban-movie-posters
The good people of the Danish Film Institute have a fantastic Flickr account, and have compiled a hu...
]]>Bolivian national park serving up sustainable ingredients for fine dining | World news | The Guardian
▻https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/aug/08/bolivia-madidi-national-park-chefs-sustainable-ingredients
While the Bolivian government is pushing to open its protected areas to oil and gas firms, the women had come to participate in an initiative to exploit the park’s natural resources in a more sustainable – and appetizing – way.
Chefs from across Latin America, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, and staff from Bolivia’s environment ministry and the Danish International Development Agency had also travelled to the park to discuss sustainable rainforest products.
The meeting was intended to prove that there is demand among leading chefs for forest produce such as wild cacao or oreja de mono mushrooms – but also to help native communities understand just how much commercial potential there is in the flora and fauna they come across on a daily basis.
]]>Denmark seizes first refugee valuables
►https://euobserver.com/tickers/134142
30. Jun, 18:23
Copenhagen police confiscated €10,700 from five Iraqi citizens, marking the first use of a controversial law that allows police to seize precious items. “Danish police checks every day whether asylum seekers have valuables that can help finance the costs of their stay. Police now found valuables that could be seized for the purpose,” said Per Fiig, a police officer. The five Iraqis were arrested and sought asylum in Denmark.
Merci à @cdb_77 qui depuis janvier alimente la liste des articles concernant la spoliation des biens des migrants ▻https://seenthis.net/messages/441216 au #danemark, en #suisse et en #allemagne. Oui je refuse de mettre des capitales à ces pourritures de pays.
Greenland witnessed its highest June temperature ever recorded on Thursday - The Washington Post
▻https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2016/06/10/greenland-witnessed-its-highest-june-temperature-ever-recorded-on-th
Nuuk, Greenland’s capital, soared to 75 degrees (24 Celsius) Thursday, marking the warmest temperature ever recorded in the Arctic country during June. Nuuk sits on Greenland’s southwest coast, where the country’s warmest weather typically occurs.
It was warmer in Nuuk than it was in New York City, where the high was only 71 degrees.
The Danish Meteorological Institute has confirmed on a preliminary basis that the Nuuk measurement would replace the previous record of 73.8 degrees (23.2 Celsius), which was set in Kangerlussuaq on June 15 in 2014. That temperature was also recorded in southwest Greenland about 200 miles (320 km) north of Nuuk.
John Cappelen, a senior climatologist at the DMI, told The Washington Post that the warm weather was brought on by winds from the east that set up between high pressure over northeast Greenland and low pressure south of Greenland. When winds come from the east over Nuuk, they blow downhill, which leads to an increase in temperature. This is the result of adiabatic warming, where air is compressed from low pressure (at the top of a mountain) to high pressure (at sea level). It’s the same kind of dry warmth that occurs as a result of Santa Ana winds in Southern California.
Thursday’s toasty reading in Nuuk marks the second exceptionally warm temperature recorded in southwest Greenland since April, when the ice melt season began about a month prematurely.
]]>A Secret Flexibility Found in Life’s Blueprints
▻https://www.quantamagazine.org/20160426-one-gene-many-proteins
For a long time, one thing seemed fairly solid in biologists’ minds: Each #gene in the #genome made one protein. The gene’s code was the recipe for one molecule that would go forth into the cell and do the work that needed doing, whether that was generating energy, disposing of waste, or any other necessary task. The idea, which dates to a 1941 paper by two geneticists who later won the Nobel Prize in medicine for their work, even has a pithy name: “one gene, one protein.”
Over the years, biologists realized that the rules weren’t quite that simple. Some genes, it turned out, were being used to make multiple products. In the process of going from gene to protein, the recipe was not always interpreted the same way. Some of the resulting proteins looked a little different from others. [...]
[...] Many researchers have assumed that the proteins made by a given gene probably do not differ greatly in their duties. It’s a reasonable assumption — many small-scale tests of sibling proteins haven’t suggested that they should be wildly different.
[...] In a recent paper in Cell, however, researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston and their collaborators [...] found that in many cases, proteins made by a single gene are no more alike in their behavior than proteins made by completely different genes. Sibling proteins often act like strangers. It’s an insight that opens up an interesting new set of possibilities for thinking about how the cell — and the human body — functions.
]]>Syrian children dream of a brighter future
Five years since the start of Syria’s war, millions of Syrians are struggling to survive as refugees, not knowing when they will be able to return home - or whether they will have a home to return to.
The Danish Refugee Council offers a glimpse of life through the eyes of Syria’s children, as they seek refuge in Jordan, Turkey, Lebanon and Iraq. The children discuss their hopes and dreams as they struggle to make sense of their new, fragile and confined worlds.
Liberal, Harsh Denmark
Hugh Eakin
A cartoon published by the Danish newspaper Politiken showing Inger Støjberg, the country’s integration minister, lighting candles on a Christmas tree that has a dead asylum-seeker as an ornament, December 2015
Anne-Marie Steen Petersen
1.
In country after country across Europe, the Syrian refugee crisis has put intense pressure on the political establishment. In Poland, voters have brought to power a right-wing party whose leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, warns that migrants are bringing “dangerous diseases” and “various types of parasites” to Europe. In France’s regional elections in December, some Socialist candidates withdrew at the last minute to support the conservatives and prevent the far-right National Front from winning. Even Germany, which took in more than a million asylum-seekers in 2015, has been forced to pull back in the face of a growing revolt from Chancellor Angela Merkel’s own party and the recent New Year’s attacks on women in Cologne, allegedly by groups of men of North African origin.
And then there is Denmark. A small, wealthy Scandinavian democracy of 5.6 million people, it is according to most measures one of the most open and egalitarian countries in the world. It has the highest income equality and one of the lowest poverty rates of any Western nation. Known for its nearly carbon-neutral cities, its free health care and university education for all, its bus drivers who are paid like accountants, its robust defense of gay rights and social freedoms, and its vigorous culture of social and political debate, the country has long been envied as a social-democratic success, a place where the state has an improbably durable record of doing good. Danish leaders also have a history of protecting religious minorities: the country was unique in Nazi-occupied Europe in prosecuting anti-Semitism and rescuing almost its entire Jewish population.
When it comes to refugees, however, Denmark has long led the continent in its shift to the right—and in its growing domestic consensus that large-scale Muslim immigration is incompatible with European social democracy. To the visitor, the country’s resistance to immigrants from Africa and the Middle East can seem implacable. In last June’s Danish national election—months before the Syrian refugee crisis hit Europe—the debate centered around whether the incumbent, center-left Social Democrats or their challengers, the center-right Liberal Party, were tougher on asylum-seekers. The main victor was the Danish People’s Party, a populist, openly anti-immigration party, which drew 21 percent of the vote, its best performance ever. Its founder, Pia Kjærsgaard, for years known for suggesting that Muslims “are at a lower stage of civilization,” is now speaker of the Danish parliament. With the backing of the Danish People’s Party, the center-right Liberals formed a minority government that has taken one of the hardest lines on refugees of any European nation.
When I arrived in Copenhagen last August, the new government, under Liberal Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, had just cut social benefits to refugees by 45 percent. There was talk among Danish politicians and in the Danish press of an “invasion” from the Middle East—though the influx at the time was occurring in the Greek islands, more than one thousand miles away. In early September, Denmark began taking out newspaper ads in Lebanon and Jordan warning would-be asylum-seekers not to come. And by November, the Danish government announced that it could no longer accept the modest share of one thousand refugees assigned to Denmark under an EU redistribution agreement, because Italy and Greece had lost control of their borders.
These developments culminated in late January of this year, when Rasmussen’s minister of integration, Inger Støjberg, a striking, red-headed forty-two-year-old who has come to represent the government’s aggressive anti-refugee policies, succeeded in pushing through parliament an “asylum austerity” law that has gained notoriety across Europe. The new law, which passed with support from the Social Democrats as well as the Danish People’s Party, permits police to strip-search asylum-seekers and confiscate their cash and most valuables above 10,000 Danish kroner ($1,460) to pay for their accommodation; delays the opportunity to apply for family reunification by up to three years; forbids asylum-seekers from residing outside refugee centers, some of which are tent encampments; reduces the cash benefits they can receive; and makes it significantly harder to qualify for permanent residence. One aim, a Liberal MPexplained to me, is simply to “make Denmark less attractive to foreigners.”
Danish hostility to refugees is particularly startling in Scandinavia, where there is a pronounced tradition of humanitarianism. Over the past decade, the Swedish government has opened its doors to hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Syrians, despite growing social problems and an increasingly popular far-right party. But one of the things Danish leaders—and many Danes I spoke to—seem to fear most is turning into “another Sweden.” Anna Mee Allerslev, the top integration official for the city of Copenhagen, told me that the Danish capital, a Social Democratic stronghold with a large foreign-born population, has for years refused to take any refugees. (Under pressure from other municipalities, this policy is set to change in 2016.)
In part, the Danish approach has been driven by the country’s long experience with terrorism and jihadism. Nearly a decade before the Charlie Hebdo attacks in Paris in January 2015, and the coordinated terrorist attacks in Paris in November, the publication of the so-called Muhammad cartoons by the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten had already turned Denmark into a primary target for extremists. Initially driven by a group of Danish imams, outcry against the cartoons gave strength to several small but radical groups among the country’s 260,000 Muslims. These groups have been blamed for the unusually large number of Danes—perhaps as many as three hundred or more—who have gone to fight in Syria, including some who went before the rise ofISIS in 2013. “The Danish system has pretty much been blinking red since 2005,” Magnus Ranstorp, a counterterrorism expert who advises the PET, the Danish security and intelligence service, told me.
Since the publication of the Muhammad cartoons, the PET and other intelligence forces have disrupted numerous terrorist plots, some of them eerily foreshadowing what happened in Paris last year. In 2009, the Pakistani-American extremist David Headley, together with Laskar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani terrorist organization, devised a meticulous plan to storm the Jyllands-Posten offices in Copenhagen and systematically kill all the journalists that could be found. Headley was arrested in the United States in October 2009, before any part of the plan was carried out; in 2013, he was sentenced by a US district court to thirty-five years in prison for his involvement in the Mumbai attacks of 2008.
In February of last year, just weeks after the Charlie Hebdo attacks, a young Danish-Palestinian man named Omar Abdel Hamid el-Hussein tried to shoot his way into the Copenhagen meeting of a free-speech group to which a Swedish cartoonist, known for his caricatures of Muhammad, had been invited. El-Hussein succeeded in killing a Danish filmmaker at the meeting before fleeing the scene; then, hours later, he killed a security guard at the city’s main synagogue and was shot dead by police.
Yet many Danes I talked to are less concerned about terrorism than about the threat they see Muslims posing to their way of life. Though Muslims make up less than 5 percent of the population, there is growing evidence that many of the new arrivals fail to enter the workforce, are slow to learn Danish, and end up in high-crime immigrant neighborhoods where, while relying on extensive state handouts, they and their children are cut off from Danish society. In 2010, the Danish government introduced a “ghetto list” of such marginalized places with the goal of “reintegrating” them; the list now includes more than thirty neighborhoods.
Popular fears that the refugee crisis could overwhelm the Danish welfare state have sometimes surprised the country’s own leadership. On December 3, in a major defeat for the government, a clear majority of Danes—53 percent—rejected a referendum on closer security cooperation with the European Union. Until now, Denmark has been only a partial EU member—for example, it does not belong to the euro and has not joined EU protocols on citizenship and legal affairs. In view of the growing threat of jihadism, both the government and the opposition Social Democrats hoped to integrate the country fully into European policing and counterterrorism efforts. But the “no” vote, which was supported by the Danish People’s Party, was driven by fears that such a move could also give Brussels influence over Denmark’s refugee and immigration policies.
The outcome of the referendum has ominous implications for the European Union at a time when emergency border controls in numerous countries—including Germany and Sweden as well as Denmark—have put in doubt the Schengen system of open borders inside the EU. In Denmark itself, the referendum has forced both the Liberals and the Social Democrats to continue moving closer to the populist right. In November, Martin Henriksen, the Danish People’s Party spokesman on refugees and immigration, toldPolitiken, the country’s leading newspaper, “There is a contest on to see who can match the Danish People’s Party on immigration matters, and I hope that more parties will participate.”
2.
According to many Danes I met, the origins of Denmark’s anti-immigration consensus can be traced to the national election of November 2001, two months after the September 11 attacks in the United States. At the time, the recently founded Danish People’s Party was largely excluded from mainstream politics; the incumbent prime minister, who was a Social Democrat, famously described the party as unfit to govern.
But during the 1990s, the country’s Muslim population had nearly doubled to around 200,000 people, and in the 2001 campaign, immigration became a central theme. The Social Democrats suffered a devastating defeat and, for the first time since 1924, didn’t control the most seats in parliament. Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the ambitious leader of the victorious Liberal Party (no relation to the current prime minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen), made a historic decision to form a government with support from the Danish People’s Party, which had come in third place—a far-right alliance that had never been tried in Scandinavia. It kept Fogh Rasmussen in power for three terms.
From an economic perspective, the government’s embrace of the populist right was anomalous. With its unique combination of comprehensive welfare and a flexible labor market—known as flexicurity—Denmark has an efficient economy in which the rate of job turnover is one of the highest in Europe, yet almost 75 percent of working-age Danes are employed. At the same time, the country’s extraordinary social benefits, such as long-term education, retraining, and free child care, are based on integration in the workforce. Yet many of the qualities about the Danish system that work so well for those born into it have made it particularly hard for outsiders to penetrate.
Denmark is a mostly low-lying country consisting of the Jutland Peninsula in the west, the large islands of Funen and Zealand in the east, and numerous smaller islands. (It also includes the island of Greenland, whose tiny population is largely Inuit.) The modern state emerged in the late nineteenth century, following a series of defeats by Bismarck’s Germany in which it lost much of its territory and a significant part of its population. Several Danish writers have linked this founding trauma to a lasting national obsession with invasion and a continual need to assert danskhed, or Danishness.
Among other things, these preoccupations have given the Danish welfare system an unusually important part in shaping national identity. Visitors to Denmark will find the Danish flag on everything from public buses to butter wrappers; many of the country’s defining institutions, from its universal secondary education (Folkehøjskoler—the People’s High Schools) to the parliament (Folketinget—the People’s House) to the Danish national church (Folkekirken—the People’s Church) to the concept of democracy itself (Folkestyret—the Rule of the People) have been built to reinforce a strong sense of folke, the Danish people.
One result of this emphasis on cohesion is the striking contrast between how Danes view their fellow nationals and how they seem to view the outside world: in 1997, a study of racism in EU countries found Danes to be simultaneously among the most tolerant and also the most racist of any European population. “In the nationalist self-image, tolerance is seen as good,” writes the Danish anthropologist Peter Hervik. “Yet…excessive tolerance is considered naive and counterproductive for sustaining Danish national identity.”
According to Hervik, this paradox helps account for the rise of the Danish People’s Party, or Dansk Folkeparti. Like its far-right counterparts in neighboring countries, the party drew on new anxieties about non-European immigrants and the growing influence of the EU. What made the Danish People’s Party particularly potent, however, was its robust defense of wealth redistribution and advanced welfare benefits for all Danes. “On a traditional left-right scheme they are very difficult to locate,” former prime minister Fogh Rasmussen told me in Copenhagen. “They are tough on crime, tough on immigration, but on welfare policy, they are center left. Sometimes they even try to surpass the Social Democrats.”
Beginning in 2002, the Fogh Rasmussen government passed a sweeping set of reforms to limit the flow of asylum-seekers. Among the most controversial were the so-called twenty-four-year rule, which required foreign-born spouses to be at least twenty-four years old to qualify for Danish citizenship, and a requirement that both spouses combined had spent more years living in Denmark than in any other country. Unprecedented in Europe, the new rules effectively ended immigrant marriages as a quick path to citizenship. At the same time, the government dramatically restricted the criteria under which a foreigner could qualify for refugee status.
To Fogh Rasmussen’s critics, the measures were simply a way to gain the support of the Danish People’s Party for his own political program. This included labor market reforms, such as tying social benefits more closely to active employment, and—most notably—a muscular new foreign policy. Departing from Denmark’s traditional neutrality, the government joined with US troops in military interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq; Denmark has since taken part in the interventions in Libya and Syria as well. (In his official state portrait in the parliament, Fogh Rasmussen, who went on to become general secretary of NATO in 2009, is depicted with a Danish military plane swooping over a desolate Afghan landscape in the background.)
Yet the immigration overhaul also had strong foundations in the Liberal Party. In 1997, Bertel Haarder, a veteran Liberal politician and strategist, wrote an influential book called Soft Cynicism, which excoriated the Danish welfare system for creating, through excessive coddling, the very stigmatization of new arrivals to Denmark that it was ostensibly supposed to prevent. Haarder, who went on to become Fogh Rasmussen’s minister of immigration, told me, “The Danes wanted to be soft and nice. And we turned proud immigrants into social welfare addicts. It wasn’t their fault. It was our fault.”
According to Haarder, who has returned to the Danish cabinet as culture minister in the current Liberal government, the refugees who have come to Denmark in recent years overwhelmingly lack the education and training needed to enter the country’s advanced labor market. As Fogh Rasmussen’s immigration minister, he sought to match the restrictions on asylum-seekers with expedited citizenship for qualified foreigners. But he was also known for his criticism of Muslims who wanted to assert their own traditions: “All this talk about equality of cultures and equality of religion is nonsense,” he told a Danish newspaper in 2002. “The Danes have the right to make decisions in Denmark.”
3.
Coming amid the Fogh Rasmussen government’s rightward shift on immigration and its growing involvement in the “war on terror,” the decision by the Danish paperJyllands-Posten in September 2005 to publish caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad seemed to bring into the open an irresolvable conflict. In the decade since they appeared, the cartoons have been linked to the torching of Western embassies, an unending series of terrorist attacks and assassination plots across Europe, and a sense, among many European intellectuals, that Western society is being cowed into a “tyranny of silence,” as Flemming Rose, the former culture editor of Jyllands-Postenwho commissioned the cartoons and who now lives under constant police protection, has titled a recent book.1 In his new study of French jihadism, Terreur dans l’hexagone: Genèse du djihad français, Gilles Kepel, the French scholar of Islam, suggests that the cartoons inspired an “international Islamic campaign against little Denmark” that became a crucial part of a broader redirection of jihadist ideology toward the West.
And yet little about the original twelve cartoons could have foretold any of this. Traditionally based in Jutland, Jyllands-Posten is a center-right broadsheet that tends to draw readers from outside the capital; it was little known abroad before the cartoons appeared. Following reports that a Danish illustrator had refused to do drawings for a book about Muhammad, Rose invited a group of caricaturists to “draw Muhammad as you see him” to find out whether they were similarly inhibited (most of them weren’t). Some of the resulting drawings made fun of the newspaper itself for pursuing the idea; in the subsequent controversy, outrage was largely directed at just one of the cartoons, which depicted the Prophet wearing a lit bomb as a turban. Even then, the uproar began only months later, after the Danish prime minister refused a request from diplomats of Muslim nations for a meeting about the cartoons. “I thought it was a trap,” Fogh Rasmussen told me. At the same time, several secular Arab regimes, including Mubarak’s Egypt and Assad’s Syria, concluded that encouraging vigorous opposition to the cartoons could shore up their Islamist credentials.
Once angry mass protests had finally been stirred up throughout the Muslim world in late January and early February 2006—including in Egypt, Iran, Sudan, Syria, Lebanon, and Afghanistan—the crisis quickly took on a logic that had never existed at the outset: attacks against Western targets led many newspapers in the West to republish the cartoons in solidarity, which in turn provoked more attacks. By the time of the Charlie Hebdo massacre in early 2015, there was a real question of what Timothy Garton Ash, in these pages, has called “the assassin’s veto,” the fact that some newspapers might self-censor simply to avoid further violence.2 Jyllands-Posten itself, declaring in an editorial in January 2015 that “violence works,” no longer republishes the cartoons.
Lost in the geopolitical fallout, however, was the debate over Danish values that the cartoons provoked in Denmark itself. Under the influence of the nineteenth-century state builder N.F.S. Grundtvig, the founders of modern Denmark embraced free speech as a core value. It was the first country in Europe to legalize pornography in the 1960s, and Danes have long taken a special pleasure in cheerful, in-your-face irreverence. In December Politiken published a cartoon showing the integration minister Inger Støjberg gleefully lighting candles on a Christmas tree that has a dead asylum-seeker as an ornament (see illustration on page 34).
Explaining his own reasons for commissioning the Muhammad cartoons, Flemming Rose has written of the need to assert the all-important right to “sarcasm, mockery, and ridicule” against an encroaching totalitarianism emanating from the Islamic world. He also makes clear that Muslims or any other minority group should be equally free to express their own views in the strongest terms. (Rose told me that he differs strongly with Geert Wilders, the prominent Dutch populist and critic of Islam. “He wants to ban the Koran. I say absolutely you can’t do that.”)
But Rose’s views about speech have been actively contested. Bo Lidegaard, the editor of Politiken, the traditional paper of the Copenhagen establishment, was Fogh Rasmussen’s national security adviser at the time of the cartoons crisis. Politiken, which shares the same owner and inhabits the same high-security building as Jyllands-Posten, has long been critical of the publication of the cartoons by its sister paper, and Lidegaard was blunt. “It was a complete lack of understanding of what a minority religion holds holy,” he told me. “It also seemed to be mobbing a minority, by saying, in their faces, ‘We don’t respect your religion! You may think this is offensive but we don’t think its offensive, so you’re dumb!’”
Lidegaard, who has written several books about Danish history, argues that the cartoons’ defenders misread the free speech tradition. He cites Denmark’s law against “threatening, insulting, or degrading” speech, which was passed by the Danish parliament in 1939, largely to protect the country’s Jewish minority from anti-Semitism. Remarkably, it remained in force—and was even invoked—during the Nazi occupation of Denmark. According to Lidegaard, it is a powerful recognition that upholding equal rights and tolerance for all can sometimes trump the need to protect extreme forms of speech.
Today, however, few Danes seem concerned about offending Muslims. Neils-Erik Hansen, a leading Danish human rights lawyer, told me that the anti–hate speech law has rarely been used in recent years, and that in several cases of hate crimes against Muslim immigrants—a newspaper boy was killed after being called “Paki swine”—the authorities have shown little interest in invoking the statute. During the cartoon affair, Lidegaard himself was part of the foreign policy team that advised Prime Minister Fogh Rasmussen not to have talks with Muslim representatives. When I asked him about this, he acknowledged, “The government made some mistakes.”
4.
Last fall I visited Mjølnerparken, an overwhelmingly immigrant “ghetto” in north Copenhagen where Omar el-Hussein, the shooter in last year’s attack against the free speech meeting, had come from. Many of the youth there belong to gangs and have been in and out of prison; the police make frequent raids to search for guns. Upward of half the adults, many of them of Palestinian and Somali origin, are unemployed. Eskild Pedersen, a veteran social worker who almost single-handedly looks after the neighborhood, told me that hardly any ethnic Danes set foot there. This was Denmark at its worst.
And yet there was little about the tidy red-brick housing blocks or the facing playground, apart from a modest amount of graffiti, that suggested dereliction or squalor. Pedersen seems to have the trust of many of his charges. He had just settled a complicated honor dispute between two Somalian families; and as we spoke, a Palestinian girl, not more than six, interrupted to tell him about a domestic violence problem in her household. He has also found part-time jobs for several gang members, and helped one of them return to school; one young man of Palestinian background gave me a tour of the auto body shop he had started in a nearby garage. (When a delegation of Egyptians was recently shown the neighborhood, the visitors asked, “Where is the ghetto?”)
But in Denmark, the police force is regarded as an extension of the social welfare system and Pedersen also makes it clear, to the young men especially, that he works closely with law enforcement. As last year’s shooting reveals, it doesn’t always work. But city officials in Copenhagen and in Aarhus, Denmark’s second city, describe some cases in which local authorities, drawing on daily contact with young and often disaffected Muslims, including jihadists returning from Syria, have been able to preempt extremist behavior.
Across Europe in recent weeks, shock over the arrival of hundreds of thousands of refugees has quickly been overtaken by alarm over the challenge they are now seen as posing to social stability. Several countries that have been welcoming to large numbers of Syrian and other asylum-seekers are confronting growing revolts from the far right—along with anti-refugee violence. In December Die Zeit, the German newsweekly, reported that more than two hundred German refugee shelters have been attacked or firebombed over the past year; in late January, Swedish police intercepted a gang of dozens of masked men who were seeking to attack migrants near Stockholm’s central station. Since the beginning of 2016, two notorious far-right, anti-immigration parties—the Sweden Democrats in Sweden and Geert Wilders’s Party for Freedom in the Netherlands—became more popular than the ruling parties in their respective countries, despite being excluded from government.
Nor is the backlash limited to the right. Since the New Year’s attacks by migrants against women in Cologne, conservative opponents of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s refugee policy have been joined by feminists and members of the left, who have denounced the “patriarchal” traditions of the “Arab man.” Recent data on the anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats, who in January were polling at 28 percent of the popular vote, shows that the party’s steady rise during Sweden’s decade of open-asylum policies has closely tracked a parallel decline in support for the center-left Social Democrats, the traditional force in Swedish politics. Confronted with such a populist surge, the Swedish government announced on January 27 that it plans to deport as many as 80,000 asylum-seekers.
As the advanced democracies of Europe reconsider their physical and psychological borders with the Muslim world, the restrictive Danish approach to immigration and the welfare state offers a stark alternative. Brought into the political process far earlier than its counterparts elsewhere, the Danish People’s Party is a good deal more moderate than, say, the National Front in France; but it also has succeeded in shaping, to an extraordinary degree, the Danish immigration debate. In recent weeks, Denmark’s Social Democrats have struggled to define their own immigration policy amid sagging support. When I asked former prime minister Fogh Rasmussen about how the Danish People’s Party differed from the others on asylum-seekers and refugees, he said, “You have differences when it comes to rhetoric, but these are nuances.”
In January, more than 60,000 refugees arrived in Europe, a thirty-five-fold increase from the same month last year; but in Denmark, according to Politiken, the number of asylum-seekers has steadily declined since the start of the year, with only 1,400 seeking to enter the country. In limiting the kind of social turmoil now playing out in Germany, Sweden, and France, the Danes may yet come through the current crisis a more stable, united, and open society than any of their neighbors. But they may also have shown that this openness extends no farther than the Danish frontier.
—February 10, 2016
Don’t damn Denmark: the neighbours are even worse when it comes to refugees
According to recent reports, Denmark’s notorious “jewellery bill” – which allows immigration authorities to confiscate valuables from refugees in order to cover the cost of their accommodation – has yet to actually bring in any cash and the exercise is looking more and more like an expensive PR disaster for the Danish government.
▻https://theconversation.com/dont-damn-denmark-the-neighbours-are-even-worse-when-it-comes-to-re
#Danemark #politique_d'asile #politique_migratoire #asile #migrations #réfugiés
The Most Important Thing
They fled Angola nearly empty-handed. Now finally returning home, some after decades in exile, 11 refugees present their most cherished belongings.
De plus en plus de réfugiés irakiens rentrent au pays, déçus par l’Europe | euronews, monde
▻http://fr.euronews.com/2016/01/28/de-plus-en-plus-de-refugies-irakiens-rentrent-au-pays-decus-par-l-europ
Depuis quelques semaines, le phénomène prend de l’ampleur à tel point que de nombreuses compagnies organisent des vols spéciaux pour ramener les réfugiés irakiens. C’est le cas de la compagnie aérienne Iraqi Airways à l’aéroport de Berlin. “Nous avons trois vols par semaine explique une salariée de la compagnie et environ 100 réfugiés par semaine. Leur nombre augmente de façon continue ; cela a commencé en septembre dernier et leur nombre ne cesse d’augmenter.”
Près de 30.000 Irakiens ont demandé l’asile en Allemagne en 2015. Le nombre d’entre eux choisissant de faire le voyage de retour est en constante augmentation depuis l’automne.
]]>We Asked Refugees in Denmark to Show Us Their Most Valuable Possessions | VICE | United Kingdom
▻http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/denmark-refugees-possessions-photos-876
On Tuesday, January 26th a majority vote in the Danish Parliament ratified an extensive tightening of Danish asylum laws, in an attempt to make Denmark a less attractive destination for refugees and immigrants. Among other things, bill L87 extends the mandatory waiting period for the right to family reunification from one to three years, cuts asylum seekers’ financial support by 10 percent and shortens residency permits for future seekers of asylum in Denmark. And then there’s of course the widely reported fact, that the bill will also allow police officers to confiscate refugees’ valuables. This is in order to finance their stay in the country while they seek asylum.
]]>Danish and Swedish governments step up attacks on refugees - World Socialist Web Site
▻http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2016/01/20/asyl-j20.html
Danish and Swedish governments step up attacks on refugees
By Jordan Shilton
20 January 2016
Denmark’s right-wing Venstre (Liberal) Party government led by Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen initiated a debate on a bill in parliament last week on legislation permitting the country’s border guards to seize money and personal belongings of refugees seeking asylum in the country.
According to the draft law, which is expected to win the support of the opposition Social Democrats, the far right Danish People’s Party, and two smaller right-wing parties, money or valuables worth more than 10,000 kroner (€1,340) are to be confiscated from refugees entering the country. The only exception to this draconian measure, included only after a wave of outrage and protest from around the world, was for items of special emotional significance such as wedding or engagement rings.
]]>Denmark broke world record for wind power in 2015
▻http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jan/18/denmark-broke-world-record-for-wind-power-in-2015
Denmark produced 42% of its electricity from wind turbines last year according to official data, the highest figure yet recorded worldwide.
[...]
The Danish government looks to be well on the way to meeting its goal of producing half of all electricity from wind by 2050, despite mooting a scale back of ambitions over the summer.
[...]
“These figures show that we are now at a level where wind integration can be the backbone of electricity systems in advanced economies,” said Kristian Ruby, Ewea’s chief policy officer.
]]>Réfugiés : le Danemark instaure des contrôles aux frontières avec l’Allemagne
Le Danemark a instauré lundi des contrôles à ses frontières avec l’Allemagne pour empêcher l’entrée de réfugiés sans papiers, a annoncé lundi le Premier ministre danois Lars Løkke Rasmussen, le jour où la Suède faisait de même à la frontière danoise.
▻http://www.rtbf.be/info/dossier/drames-de-la-migration-les-candidats-refugies-meurent-aux-portes-de-l-europe/detail_refugies-le-danemark-instaure-des-controles-aux-frontieres-avec-l-allema
#réfugiés #asile #migrations #frontières #fermeture_des_frontières #Schengen (la fin de -) #Danemark #Allemagne #contrôles_frontaliers
cc @reka
Luxembourg: Administrative Tribunal annuls Dublin transfer to Hungary
In decision no. 36966 of the Administrative Tribunal of the Grand-Duchy of Luxembourg of 17 September 2015, the decision to transfer an Afghan asylum seeker to Hungary was annulled on the basis of systemic deficiencies in the asylum procedure and reception conditions there.
►http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=8e3ebd297b1510becc6d6d690&id=a2f1ba1da2&e=1d7a568eac
Denmark: suspension of Dublin returns to Hungary
On 9 October 2015 the Refugee Appeals Board decided to suspend all Dublin transfers to Hungary and made a request to the Danish Immigration Service to launch a general consultation on whether Hungary presently accepts Dublin returnees from other Member states, as well as whether Hungary observes its obligations under international law.
►http://us1.campaign-archive2.com/?u=8e3ebd297b1510becc6d6d690&id=a2f1ba1da2&e=1d7a568eac
#Règlement_Dublin #renvoi #asile #migrations #réfugiés #suspension #Luxembourg #Danemark
"People need to recognise #Ebola and isolate it" – Interview with Danish Refugee Council expert
Liberia is Ebola-free, and the number of new cases in Sierra Leone and Guinea has considerably decreased since the outbreak was declared in March 2014. The end of the outbreak seems a little closer. But Ebola can and may return. The European Commission’s humanitarian partners are on the ground to help people get back on their feet and prepare for any possible new outbreak. Our colleague Isabel Coello talked to Audrey Crawford, Head of Programmes at Danish Refugee Council in Liberia.
▻http://ec.europa.eu/echo/blog/people-need-recognise-ebola-and-isolate-it-interview-danish-refugee-counci
]]>Refugee crisis : Danish police close road and rail links with Germany | World news | The Guardian
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/09/refugee-crisis-denmark-police-close-road-germany
« ... Pour empêcher les réfugiés de se rendre en Suède... » Comme si c’était la solution. C’est la (triste) suite de
►http://seenthis.net/messages/406909
A part imaginer que le gouvernement danois est composé de quelques sadiques psychopathes, je ne comprends pas la stratégie. J’espère en tout cas qu’en Hongrie, au Danemark, en France, les citoyens se souviendront de cette lâcheté.
Danish police have closed a motorway and rail links with Germany in an effort to prevent refugees heading north to Sweden, as the crisis facing Europe spreads northwards.
The E45 motorway, a vital passage of traffic for people and goods between Sweden and Germany, was closed on Wednesday when about 300 refugees, including children, began walking on it
]]>#Cancer a daunting challenge for poor countries | News | Harvard School of Public Health
▻http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/hsph-in-the-news/cancer-daunting-challenge-for-poor-countries
More than 1/2 of new cancer cases occur in low- and middle-income countries, as do nearly 2/3 of cancer deaths. Experts at a global oncology symposium held February 8, 2014 at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute discussed the substantial barriers to care faced by cancer patients in developing countries, such as the cost of care, limited access to treatment facilities, and social stigma.
]]>Human rights abuses ‘leave a third of Libyans with mental health problems’
▻http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/nov/26/human-rights-abuses-libyans-mental-health-problems-report
Research by Dignity – the Danish Institute against Torture – shared with the Guardian, paints a devastating picture of the human consequences of the regionalism, tribalism and factionalism that have wracked the north African country since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi three-and-a-half years ago.
A fifth of households (20%) had a family member who had disappeared, 11% reported having a household member arrested and 5% reported that one had been killed, researchers found. Of those arrested, 46% reported beatings, 20% positional torture or suspensions and 16% suffocation. Between 3% and 5% reported having suffered sexual, thermal or electrical torture.
“Our data supports the allegations that widespread … and gross human rights violations have taken place in Libya,” says the report, which seeks to assess Libya’s mental health needs and was co-authored with Benghazi University. The survey is based on 2,692 household interviews and was completed in October 2013. The situation may have got worse since then, it concludes.
Data revealed that 29% of individuals reported anxiety and 30% depression. Stress levels showed a preoccupation with political instability (63.6%) followed by the collapse of the country (61.2%), insecurity about “life right now” (56.6%) and insecurity about the future (46.4%). Nearly 30% reported being exposed to violence during demonstrations.
]]>Political prisoners: »Last fugitive #Pirate_Bay member arrested« — Wired
▻http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2014-11/04/last-fugitive-member-of-pirate-bay-arrested
Fredrik Neij’s (@TiAMO) arrest on Tuesday completes the trio of Pirate Bay founders, who have now all been detained. While Peter Sunde (@brokep) nears the end of his eight-month sentence, which he is serving in Sweden, Gottfrid Svartholm (@anakata) was convicted of hacking charges by a Danish court on 30 October. He is now serving a three-and-a-half year sentence.
DRC emergency relief operations launched in Iraq
During the latest escalation of the violence in Northern Iraq the civilian minority population has become a direct target. 200.000 people have been displaced bringing the total to 1.5 million since the violence erupted in December 2013. The Danish Refugee Council is distributing food and water so far reaching 10.000 displaced.
▻http://drc.dk/news/news/artikel/drc-emergency-relief-operations-launched-in-iraq
#Irak #urgence #violence #déplacés #déplacés_internes #réfugiés #migration #asile
]]>Going West
contemporary mixed migration trends from the Horn of Africa to Libya & Europe
– JRS Malta hosted the launch of ’Going West’, a report on mixed migration from the Horn of Africa to Libya and Europe, based on extensive field research by the Danish Refugee Council (DRC) and the Regional Mixed Migration Secretariat (RMMS). The Mediterranean Conference Centre in Valletta was full as a lively discussion and debate ensued.
On the panel were Dr Melissa Phillips, RMMS mixed migration project manager, Marie Groth Kruse, DRC program officer, and Dr Katrine Camilleri, Director of Jesuit Refugee Service Malta.
Ms Kruse has spent a total of six months in Libya visiting government-run detention centres and documenting the conditions forced migrants face in the country. She reports that dialogue with the authorities is improving, but conditions inside the detention centres remain poor.
On the difficult work itself, Ms Kruse simply states ’travelling to the centres is a security risk’. The whole Danish Refugee Council team, along with workers from other NGOs, were recently evacuated from Libya as the security situation deteriorated even further.
Access to healthcare for migrants remains extremely limited and when they do manage to get to a doctor they are often left facing hefty medical bills. Caritas has a drop-in clinic in Tripoli run by two nuns and there are often long queues of migrants waiting to be seen.
Libya has neither signed the UN Refugee Convention nor reached any official agreement for UNHCR to operate on its territory. This means that the chances for refugees to receive protection in Libya are virtually non-existent.
As documented in the JRS report ’Beyond Imagination’ sub-Saharan African migrants face widespread abuse in Libya, from labour exploitation through to physical violence and even torture. Many of the detention centres in Libya are run by militia groups who rule by the gun.
It is no surprise that people keep moving in order to find the safe life they are seeking. As Dr Phillips pointed out the causes for flight are multi-layered and interlinked: a migrant may face economic and social insecurity as well as political persecution. Moreover, forced migrants are often victimised in different ways at different stages of their journeys.
“People keep on moving until they find the protection that they need,” confirmed Dr Camilleri. Until more effective protection mechanisms are developed and implemented by the EU, desperate people will continue to risk their lives on the sea to reach Europe.
▻http://www.mixedmigration.org/resource/going-west
#mixed_migration #migration #Libye #Erythrée #Ethiopie #Soudan #Somalie #parcours_migratoire
cc @reka
Her Community Said Women Dancing Was Immodest... So She Started A Dance School.
▻http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/her-community-said-women-dancing-was-immodest-so-she-started-a-dance
In Mina’s Orthodox Jewish community, a dancing woman is a dangerously seductive thing. But Mina refuses to still her body or her spirit. She’s even teaching girls to follow in her footsteps. This...
]]>Populists in Europe (3/8) : Danish ethnocentrism
▻http://fr.myeurop.info/node/13847
The far right has been riding high in #Denmark for over ten years. Xenophobic ideas defended by the Danish People’s Party have crept into the whole society.
Refusing a multi-ethnic society is the basic ideology of the Danish People’s Party – Dansk Folkeparti or DF – founded in 1995 by Pia Kjærsgaard and led since September 2012 lire la suite
#Debates #Politics #2014_European_elections #Denmark #discrimination #immigrants #injustice #Islamophobic #People's_Party #political_party #populism #populist #racist #right-wing
]]>Ex-Shin Bet chief flees Denmark following leftist group’s complaint to police
By Barak Ravid | Jan. 12, 2014
Haaretz
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.568063
Former Shin Bet security service director Carmi Gillon left Denmark in a hurry Saturday after a complaint was filed against him with Danish police by a pro-Palestinian organization, presumably alleging his involvement with torture.
Gillon, the domestic security service’s chief in the mid 1990s, was invited to the Copenhagen Jewish Film Festival for a screening of the documentary “The Gatekeepers” – in which he appears along with five other former heads of the Shin Bet – and delivered a lecture following the screening.
However, after Gillon’s arrival in Denmark last week, the Israel Embassy in Copenhagen learned that extreme left-wing activists had filed a complaint against him with the police. The Israeli ambassador contacted local authorities to try to determine whether Gillon was in danger of being arrested. Gillon himself was also apprised of the situation and decided to move up his departure from Copenhagen. Meanwhile, the Danish prosecutor’s office rejected the complaint outright due to lack of evidence of Gillon’s involvement in torture.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the complaint filed against Gillon was baseless, politically motivated and should be rejected, as in previous cases.
“Behind the complaint are extremist groups that are trying to silence people, stifle freedom of expression and cause intimidation,” he said.
“These same groups,” he continued, “are trying to conceal from the public in Copenhagen the complex reality that Israel faces on a daily basis in order to maintain its security and democratic character in the best manner possible.”
Gillon headed the Shin Bet in the mid-1990s, when rising Israeli political tensions over the Oslo Accords culminated in the November 1995 assassination of prime minister Yitzhak Rabin.
A few months before the assassination, Gillon warned that fiery rhetoric by right-wing figures was encouraging radicals and fostering an atmosphere of violence. He left the service following the assassination.
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