Foreign criminals will be forced to live on a remote island off the coast of Denmark, the country’s government has announced.
Situated around one-and-a-half miles off the coast, a facility on Lindholm will now house rejected asylum seekers who have committed crimes and those who cannot stay in Denmark but also cannot be deported due to legal reasons.
Finance minister Kristian Jensen said prisoners who are deemed to be low-risk will be permitted to travel to and from the mainland with a ferry service during the day.
They will have to check back every night and will not be allowed to move freely.
“They will not be imprisoned. There will be a ferry service to and from the island, but the ferry will not operate around the clock, and they must stay at the departure centre at night. That way we will be better able to monitor where they are,” he told Danish news agency Ritzau.
The policy is part of the coalition government agreement that includes the anti-immigration Danish People’s Party, which has a hardline stance towards asylum seekers and refugees.
The party celebrated the announcement of the policy by posting a cartoon on social media showing a dark-skinned man being dumped onto a desert island.
Alongside the image, the party wrote: “Deported, criminal foreigners have no reason to be in Denmark. Until we can get rid of them, we will move them to the island of Lindholm. They will be obliged to stay at the new deportation centre at night and there will be police around the clock. Great!”
However, opposition figures were fiercely critical of the proposal.
Describing it as a “humanitarian collapse”, Uffe Elbaek, a prime ministerial candidate and leader of the Alternative party, said: “The green government I want to lead would never force people on to a deserted island.”
He added: “Inhuman politics are creating a completely different Denmark to the Denmark I love.”
