Denmark’s immigration minister says he gained “valuable insights” on a trip to the tiny Pacific Island nation of Nauru, located off Australia’s northeast coast, to study its controversial offshore asylum seeker processing system.
Denmark is one of the leading proponents amongst European member states of outsourcing irregular migration processing to third countries to alleviate pressure on the bloc’s dysfunctional asylum system.
In recent years tens of thousands of asylum seekers have drowned in the Mediterranean Sea trying to reach Europe. Many also die in overcrowded trucks crossing the Sahara Desert in northern Africa, the United Nations refugee agency says.
Danish immigration minister Kaare Dybvad Bek last week travelled more than 13,000km from Copenhagen to Nauru, which has hosted an Australian-run immigration detention centre on and off since 2001.
During his eight-day study tour, Mr Dybvad Bek also held talks with Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke, federal MPs and human rights organisations in Canberra.
“I had a prolific trip, which gave me lots of valuable insights and lessons,” Mr Dybvad Bek told AAP reporter Lisa Martin in Copenhagen.
“I learned much about both the pros and the cons of the cooperation between Australia and Nauru.”
Like the United Kingdom, Denmark also proposed sending asylum seekers to Rwanda for processing, but has since shelved the idea.
In May, just one day after the EU finally landed its New Pact on Migration and Asylum following four years of tough negotiations, Denmark instigated a joint call from 15 member states to outsource migration policy and prevent irregular migrants from arriving at EU borders in the first place.
The proposal included “rescuing migrants on the high seas and bringing them to a predetermined place of safety in a partner country outside the EU”, as well as sending migrants to a “safe third country alternative” for case processing, instead of evaluating them at the EU border.
Mr Dybvad Bek said since 2014 more than 30,000 people have drowned or disappeared on their way to Europe, and called the situation “deeply inhumane and an insult to humanity”.
While Denmark is not bound by the New Pact on Migration and Asylum due to its opt-out clause from the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ), Dybvad Bek underscored that the Danish government “only wishes to engage in solutions in line with our international obligations and responsibilities, including the European Convention on Human Rights”.
Still, when Australian Greens immigration spokesman David Shoebridge met with Mr Dybvad Bek during the Nauru trip, he warned “very clearly: do not go down this path” and copy the Australian playbook.
“A national asylum policy that deliberately harms innocent people who are only seeking protection is a race to the bottom, where you will squander billions in public funds and degrade your collective values,” said Shoebridge.
Human Rights Watch Australia director Daniela Gavshon told Mr Dybvad Bek that Australia’s “failed offshore detention regime” on Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea has caused “immense suffering”.
Vibe Klarup, Amnesty International Denmark’s secretary-general, likened Nauru to “an open-air prison” and said the kingdom should focus on increasing its refugee intake and allow Danish embassies to process asylum claims so people don’t undertake perilous journeys.
“From a human rights perspective, there are no good lessons learned from the very costly Australian model,” Ms Klarup told AAP.
