FAQ: Getting asylum in Denmark

Being granted asylum in Denmark means that you are granted a residence permit as a refugee and are thus protected against being sent back to your home country. You can be granted asylum if you are at risk of persecution, torture, or other inhumane treatment in your home country. 

The obligation not to send a person back to a home country where he or she is at risk of persecution, torture, or other inhumane treatment follows from the UN Refugee Convention, the European Convention on Human Rights, and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, to which Denmark has acceded. In Denmark, you are granted asylum under section 7 of the Danish Aliens Act. 

When you apply for asylum, you are registered as an asylum seeker with the Danish Immigration Service. It is the Danish Immigration Service and the Refugee Appeals Board that assess whether asylum seekers are entitled to refugee status or not. 

At both the first instance (the Danish Immigration Service) and the second instance (the Refugee Appeals Board), the Danish authorities will assess whether an asylum seeker is entitled to a residence permit as a refugee under section 7 of the Danish Aliens Act. 

The authorities will compare the asylum seeker's explanation with the general background information about the home country. The authorities will also assess whether the asylum seeker's explanation is credible. 

Based on the general background information on the home country, and the asylum seeker's explanation about the need for international protection, the authorities will assess what will happen if he or she returns to the country of origin. 

The decisive factor for obtaining a residence permit as a refugee is whether the Danish authorities find that there is a real risk that the asylum seeker in the home country will be subjected to persecution or other serious abuses by the authorities or by groups against which the authorities cannot or will not provide protection from. 

When the Danish immigration authorities assess whether an asylum seeker is at risk of persecution in the home country, they will generally look at whether they were exposed to serious abuses or threats before the flight. 

The authorities will assess the intensity, nature, and frequency of the abuses that have been suffered. The aim is to find out whether these are isolated incidents or whether they are in some way an expression of something that will continue to happen in the future. 

If you as an asylum seeker have not previously been subjected to abuse, there may be other indications that you will be subjected to serious abuse in the future. 

What determines whether you can be granted a residence permit as a refugee is whether the Danish authorities find that there is a real risk that you will be subjected to persecution or other serious abuse if you return to your home country. 

If you have experienced discrimination and harassment, it is typically not enough in itself to obtain asylum, even though it can cause a very difficult life situation in the home country. 

Persecution, which may give the right to a residence permit as a refugee, can be committed by both authorities and private individuals in the home country. 

In very special cases, you can also be granted a residence permit as a refugee if the home country is characterized by completely arbitrary violence and general attacks against civilians, which makes the general situation so serious that you upon return will be at risk of being killed or seriously injured. 

In cases where private individuals are behind the persecution, the Danish authorities will assess whether the authorities in the home country will be able to provide protection. If the authorities in the home country are unable to provide protection against persecution, or if they lack the will to do so, this may be the basis for obtaining a residence permit as a refugee. 

Depending on the individual case, the Danish authorities can grant a residence permit as a refugee in accordance with three different provisions in section 7 of the Danish Aliens Act. 

• asylum or status as a convention refugee because you meet the UN Refugee Convention's definition of refugees (Section 7(1)) 
• subsidiary protection status because you are at risk of torture or inhumane treatment in the country of origin (Section 7(2)), or 
• temporary protection status because the situation in the country of origin is characterized by indiscriminate violence and attacks on civilians (Section 7(3)).