The government’s plan to use one-third of Denmark’s developmental aid to help finance the reception of refugees in the country next year has drawn sharp criticism from both Radikale and Enhedslisten.

The money, which totals 4.4 billion kroner, is just under 30 percent of Denmark’s total foreign aid budget – an increase from just under 2 percent in 2008, making Denmark the largest beneficiary of Danish developmental aid.

Far-fetched
It is far-fetched that Denmark receives the most Danish developmental aid, while the world cries out for help. Or at least, that’s the view that both Radikale and Enhedslisten have taken with regard to the issue.

“One of the ways we can ensure that people are not forced to become refugees is by stabilizing the neighborhoods that everyone talks so much about,” Enhedslisten’s political spokesperson, Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen, told DR.

Radikale also took a similar view, with party leader Morten Østergaard saying it was an “absurd time to decide on a historic scaling down of development aid“.

“If you want fewer refugees in the world, you needs to prioritize assistance in the neighboring areas and prevent new conflicts, and that cannot happen if you spend all the money on yourself,” DR reported him as saying.

A great humanitarian task in Denmark
However, Ventre defended the measure saying that the previous government had also used the same one.

“We give money where humanitarian missions need it most and right now there is a great humanitarian task in Denmark. Whether it is a humanitarian mission in Turkey, Jordan – or Denmark – it is the same problem, and therefore, we will follow the same procedures as the previous government,” foreign affairs spokesman for Venstre, Michael Aastrup Jensen, told DR.