Denmark to resume taking in refugees

COPENHAGEN: Denmark will accept 30 refugees in the coming days as it reactivates a UN quota plan it suspended in 2016, authorities said on Thursday. "They are Syrians or stateless persons from Syria staying in Turkey," the country’s immigration agency told AFP in an email.

A first batch are expected to arrive at the weekend under the aegis of the UN refugee agency UNHCR. The policy reversal came after elections last June brought in a new left-wing government led by Social Democrat Mette Frederiksen, who has vowed a strict but "fair" immigration policy.

Legislation passed in 2017 with the support of the Social Democrats and the populist Danish People’s Party has left the number of refugee arrivals to the discretion of the immigration ministry. Denmark took in around 500 refugees per year from UNHCR camps between 1979 and 2016, according to the UN agency.