Huge spike in asylum approval rate in Denmark

88 percent of asylum-seekers approved during the first seven months of 2015

The asylum approval rate has increased significantly in 2015, according to new figures from the immigration service Udlændingestyrelsen.

The figures reveal that 88 percent of asylum-seekers have been granted asylum in Denmark during the first seven months of this year, compared to 74 percent last year.

“First of all, I think it has something to do with who is coming,” Thomas Gammeltoft-Hansen, a research director at the Danish Institute for Human Rights, told DR Nyheder.

“They are all in groups who have close to a 100 percent chance of being granted asylum, and that is reflected by these approval processes. They are who we call ‘prima facie refugees’ – people who are in desperate need of protection and asylum.”

READ MORE: Humanitarian head invites asylum-seekers to seek Denmark

Syrians and Eritreans
The vast majority of the asylum-seekers hail from Syria. Some 2,142 out of the 5,174 asylum seekers came from the war-torn nation.

Eritrea supplied the next-largest group of asylum seekers with 801, followed by people who were ‘stateless’ – such as Palestinians – with 347.





  • How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    How internationals can benefit from joining trade unions

    Being part of a trade union is a long-established norm for Danes. But many internationals do not join unions – instead enduring workers’ rights violations. Find out how joining a union could benefit you, and how to go about it.

  • Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals in Denmark rarely join a trade union

    Internationals are overrepresented in the lowest-paid fields of agriculture, transport, cleaning, hotels and restaurants, and construction – industries that classically lack collective agreements. A new analysis from the Workers’ Union’s Business Council suggests that internationals rarely join trade unions – but if they did, it would generate better industry standards.

  • Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    Novo Nordisk overtakes LEGO as the most desirable future workplace amongst university students

    The numbers are especially striking amongst the 3,477 business and economics students polled, of whom 31 percent elected Novo Nordisk as their favorite, compared with 20 percent last year.