Liberal Alliance would stop all asylum applications in Denmark for two years

Party would close borders to get a handle on refugee situation

Until there is better control of the refugee situation, government ally Liberal Alliance (LA) would suspend the requirements of the UN Refugee Convention.

The measure would prohibit asylum applications in Denmark  for the next two years, reports Berlingske.

“We have to accept that we are in a new reality,” LA party head Simon Emil Ammitzbøl told the newspaper.

“We have an obligation to help the victims of the war in Syria, but we also have an obligation to take care of our own society.”

Ammitzbøl  said the moratorium period would be used to “adjust the conventions so that they adapt to a new reality”.

A laughingstock
Dansk Folkeparti’s Martin Henriksen was positive about the LA plan, but Venstre’s immigration spokesperson, Marcus Knuth, rejected it out of hand.

Jonas Christoffersen, the head of the human rights centre Center for Menneskerettigheder, said that the LA proposal was illegal.

“I am deeply concerned that key political figures are trying to solve problems by extricating themselves from legal rules,” Christoffersen said.

READ MORE: MP calls for more precise count of asylum-seekers

Venstre’s foreign affairs spokesman Martin Lidegaard said that implementing LA’s suggestion would make Denmark the laughing stock of the world.

Denmark was the first country to sign the UN Refugee Convention when it was established in 1951.

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