Most asylum-seekers have to wait an average of over three months for their first interview with the immigration services, reports Metroxpress.

However, the minister for immigration and integration, Inger Støjberg, has now made assurances that her ministry is doing everything it can to speed up the process – but says she cannot make any promises.

The wait is too long
Støjberg admits that the waiting time as it currently stands is too long. However, she cannot guarantee that it will change anytime soon.

“If there are 10,000 Roma in the morning, one can quickly determine their asylum cases. But if there are 5,000 Afghans, the process takes longer,” she said on Tuesday.

“Our ambition is of course to reduce the duration of proceedings as soon as possible.”

Never been busier
She was careful to stress that the immigration authorities have never been busier – with 21,000 asylum applications processed last year, the ministry has hired an additional 100 employees to process the requests.

“But it takes time to hire new employees in such numbers and have them trained to make decisions in complex asylum cases,” she said.

The statements were made at a consultation meeting about the asylum situation in Denmark. The justice minister, Søren Pind, was also in attendance to comment on the security considerations his ministry made in regard to the risk of terror and other criminal offences.