Fury as 'absurd' politician compares asylum seeker facility to Nazi concentration camp
DENMARK'S immigration minister has reacted with fury after a facility housing failed asylum seekers and criminals awaiting deportation was likened to a Nazi concentration camp.
Støjberg: Can't compare exit centre to concentration camp
An outraged Inger Støjberg tore into Stig Grenov, the national chairman of the centre-right Christian Democrats, after he suggested failed asylum-seekers and criminals housed at the Kærshovedgård facility were suffering at the same level as prisoners of the Third Reich.
Slapping down the shocking claim, Ms Støjberg told Tv2.dk: “I have to say, it is completely absurd and history-less to compare it to a concentration camp.
“And I also think it is disrespectful to the almost six million Jews who lost their lives in the concentration camps to draw this comparison.”
The immigration minister’s fury was sparked after Mr Gernov wrote an article where he said the centre “was the closest Denmark comes to a concentration camp, without actually having one”.
Inger Støjberg slapped down the Christian Democrats for comparing the exit centre to a Nazi camp
In Politiken.dk, the chairman wrote Denmark was “writing yet another dark chapter in its history” by allowing people to live in such conditions.
Mr Grenov also claimed the residents, who are awaiting deportation, were not given enough food and were not allowed to have a TV or kettles in their rooms.
Ms Støjberg dismissed his comments and said she has visited the facility on multiple occassions unlike the chairman who has never been to the exit centre.
“I’ve been out there several times and I have also eaten the same food the residents do. I had the meal with my Belgian colleague who was here to see the centre," she said
ISIS fighters receive unemployment benefits from Denmark
It is completely absurd and history less to compare it to a concentration camp
Continuing the defence of the departure centre, the immigration minister said it was a facility set up to house people who were unwanted in Denmark.
The leading politician said: “Several of them have not the right to be here.
“Several of the are criminal deportees, and there are those who have committed such serious crimes they will also be deported, but they are missing their final sentencing because their home countries cannot guarantee their safety.”
Ms Støjberg’s dismissal of the criticism against the Kærshovedgård facility comes after a report in October said at least one asylum seeker is suspected of being radicalised by Isis at Danish reception centres each week.
The immigration minister branded the CD chairman history less over the claim
The findings were uncovered after Ms Støjberg, in November 2015, ordered asylum seeker facilities to report all migrants displaying worrying behaviour in a bid to thwart lone wolf attacks.
In less than 11 months, more than 50 residents were reported under the scheme and cases included adults watching and hailing Isis execution videos and children beheading teddy bears.
At the time, the cabinet confirmed there were serious cases of radicalism within Danish reception centres.