COPENHAGEN: Denmark has seized just over 25,000 euros from migrants arriving in the country in the three years since passing a controversial law allowing for the confiscation of valuables, police said Thursday.
Since the law was passed on January 26, 2015, officials have seized the equivalent of some 186,800 kroner (25,000 euros/$28,400) in cash as well as a car worth around 100,000 kroner, but they have not seized any jewelry.
Over that period, there have been 10 occasions when officials have applied the law, which allows for the confiscation of cash exceeding 10,000 kroner or objects of the same value.
The aim is to cover the individual’s costs while any asylum request is examined.
The legislation is just one of several legal measures aimed at dissuading migrants from going to Denmark, but one which has been sharply criticized abroad.
“It’s a question of principle: if you can help pay for your own needs, you should,” Immigration and Integration Minister Inger Stojberg told the Danish news agency Ritzau.
“It’s true for Danes and it’s true for refugees who come here.”
Engagement and wedding rings were initially included in the law but the government backtracked after the proposal sparked uproar, with the Washington Post comparing it to the Nazis’ theft of valuables from the Jewish community.
In December, Denmark received some 180 asylum applications — the lowest number since 2008.
In 2018, some 3,500 people sought asylum in Denmark, compared to more than 21,000 in 2015.
Over 3 years, Denmark seizes 25,000 euros from migrants
Over 3 years, Denmark seizes 25,000 euros from migrants
- Since the law was passed on January 26, 2015, officials have seized the equivalent of some 186,800 kroner in cash
Uganda partially restores internet after president wins 7th term
- “The internet shutdown implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities ... it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report
KAMPALA: Ugandan authorities have partially restored internet services late after 81-year-old President Yoweri Museveni won a seventh term to extend his rule into a fifth decade with a landslide victory rejected by
the opposition.
Users reported being able to reconnect to the internet and some internet service providers sent out a message to customers saying the regulator had ordered them to restore services excluding social media.
“We have restored internet so that businesses that rely on internet can resume work,” David Birungi, spokesperson for Airtel Uganda, one of the country’s biggest telecom companies said. He added that the state communications regulator had ordered that social media remain shut down.
The state-run Uganda Communications Commission said it had cut off internet to curb “misinformation, disinformation, electoral fraud and related risks.” The opposition, however, criticized the move saying it was to cement control over the electoral process and guarantee a win for the incumbent.
The electoral body in the East African country on Saturday declared Museveni the winner of Thursday’s poll with 71.6 percent of the vote, while his rival pop star-turned-politician Bobi Wine was credited with 24 percent
of the vote.
A joint report from an election observer team from the African Union and other regional blocs criticized the involvement of the military in the election and the authorities’ decision to cut
off internet.
“The internet shutdown implemented two days before the elections limited access to information, freedom of association, curtailed economic activities ... it also created suspicion and mistrust on the electoral process,” the team said in their report.
In power since 1986 and currently Africa’s third longest-ruling head of state, Museveni’s latest win means he will have been in power for nearly half a century when his new term ends in 2031.
He is widely thought to be preparing his son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, to take over from him. Kainerugaba is currently head of the military and has expressed presidential ambitions.
Wine, who was taking on Museveni for a second time, has rejected the results of the latest vote and alleged mass fraud during the election.
Scattered opposition protests broke out late on Saturday after results were announced, according to a witness and police.
In Magere, a suburb in Kampala’s north where Wine lives, a group of youths burned tires and erected barricades in the road prompting police to respond with tear gas.
Police spokesperson Racheal Kawala said the protests had been quashed and that arrests were made but said the number of those detained would be released later.
Wine’s whereabouts were unknown early on Sunday after he said in a post on X he had escaped a raid by the military on his home. People close to him said he remained at an undisclosed location in Uganda. Wine was briefly held under house arrest following the previous election in 2021.
Wine has said hundreds of his supporters were detained during the months leading up to the vote and that others have been tortured.
Government officials have denied those allegations and say those who have been detained have violated the law and will be put through due process.
