COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) – Denmark’s minority center-right government doesn’t want to accept any refugees this year that come in under a U.N. quota system, an official said Saturday.
The U.N. refugee agency has made deals with countries, including Denmark, to take in a number of refugees each year. Since 1989, Denmark has accepted about 500 such refugees every year.
But now Denmark “doesn’t want to commit ourselves,” said Integration Minister Inger Stoejberg, considered an immigration hardliner. “I don’t believe we have room for quota refugees this year.”
Stoejberg said Denmark had received about 56,000 asylum-seekers since 2012 and many of them are expected to try to bring relatives in. She said those already in Denmark should be integrated first.
The anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, which backs the government, supports the proposal.
