Ex-Danish minister gets prison term for separating migrant couples

COPENHAGEN: Denmark’s former immigration minister was on Monday sentenced to two months in prison after a special court found her guilty of illegally separating several couples of asylum seekers where the woman was a minor.

"Inger Stojberg is found guilty of a deliberate violation of the Ministerial Responsibility Act," Denmark’s Court of Impeachment of the Realm said in a statement, adding that the punishment had been set at 60 days in jail.

Stojberg was accused of violating the European Convention on Human Rights by ordering the separation of asylum-seeking couples, some of whom had children, when the woman was under the age of 18. The former minister had pleaded not guilty in the exceptional trial that began in September.

While the sentence was not suspended, those in Denmark serving less than six months are eligible for electronic monitoring instead, meaning Stojberg is unlikely to spend any time in prison.

In 2016, 23 couples, most of whom had a small age difference, were separated without individual examination of their case, following instructions from the minister. They were then placed in different centres while their cases were being examined.

Her decision was found to be "unlawful" because the arrangement was made without exceptions and the immigration service did not consider individual cases. Parliament must now decide whether to disqualify Stojberg from being a member of parliament.

Serving as the Minister for Immigration and Integration from 2015 to 2019 in a centre-right government propped up by the right-wing populist anti-immigration Danish People’s Party (DF), Stojberg helped tighten up Denmark’s restrictive migration policy.