Former Danish Immigration Minister Convicted Over Order to Separate Asylum-Seeking Couples
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
Until a public uproar forced a change in policy, the Trump administration engaged in the separation of migrant parents and children apprehended along the U.S./Mexico border. Some of the families have yet to be reunited.
Is there something rotten in Denmark? It appears that the Danish government engaged in a similar family separation policy in its immigration enforcement efforts, But, unlike in the United States, the Danish government is now holding accountable the government official responsible for the family separation policy.
Newsweek reports that
“former Danish immigration minister was convicted [earlier this week] of separating couples in asylum centers, a practice that a Danish parliament-appointed commission said was `clearly illegal.’ The country’s Court of Impeachment convened for the first time in 26 years to try Inger Stoejberg, who now faces 60 days in detention.
The Danish parliament voted in favor of trying Stoejberg for charges related to a 2016 order to separate asylum seeking-couples when one of them was a minor. Stoejberg has said that she gave the order out of concern that the minors were involved in forced marriages.