Analysis: Evading responsibility for refugee protection

Danish asylum policy impacts global refugee protection

Schemes aimed at shifting responsibility for asylum seekers from one country to another that is usually placed far away, is called externalisation of asylum processing and can have serious consequences for the global refugee protection system. 

When rich countries push the responsibility for asylum seekers and refugees onto poorer countries that usually already have received many displaced people, the access to protection becomes restricted.  

The Danish government criticizes the European asylum system for being “dysfunctional and unjust”. But for the system to function, it requires political will from all European governments to ensure solidarity and support for common solutions. 

The establishment of reception centres outside the EU has been presented as a “humane” alternative to the existing asylum system. But the rationale is flawed, and the premises are false. Instead, such as scheme risk violating the rights of vulnerable refugees and undermining the global asylum system. 

The Danish scheme for externalized asylum processing and refugee protection reflects a narrow Danish perspective, based on a misconceived perception widely supported by political rhetoric depicting an insurmountable and unmanageable movements of refugees and migrants towards Europe and Denmark.  

The global asylum system protects millions of refugees – primarily in neighbouring countries – and this system is jeopardized by Denmark's attempt to evade its responsibility to host some of the world's vulnerable refugees.