I have been in Copenhagen for almost three weeks now. While you may be asking what human rights violations, or what touching stories about poverty and pain happen in the world's happiest welfare state, the past few weeks have taken me deep into the darkness of political refuge seekers. Denmark has accepted almost 15,000 Iraqi refugees, most of them on basis of political asylum, but it is also home for many Palestinians, Somalis and former Yugoslavians. To keep this short, while they enjoy free education and welfare and live a relatively high quality of life, being a refugee in Denmark is anything but gentle.
Researching the psycho-social conditions of these Iraqi refugees, I've spent many hours listening to their courageous stories. They come from diverse backgrounds (Baghdad, Karbala, Mosul) and have been affected by Saddam's regime for different reasons, some were involved in communist or democratic parties, some are simply Shia'a, and with others you never find out. This heterogenous community, suffering at once from both cultural isolation and internal tensions, shares the word Ka'aba, pain, in common. Ka'aba is such a common word to hear in interviews, it has become trivial to me that integration is failing for the older generations, especially when it comes to psychological distress. Complaints of racism and unemployment are anything but irregular, and when asked about three wishes, 'returning to Iraq' has so far scored my entire interviewed population. Ironically, these people only wish for an Iraq like in Saddam's era, and hopes of return after the fall of Baghdad are now slowly disappearing.
In any case, it is safe to say that Denmark has closed its gates of immigration since the loss of the Social Democratic Party in 2001, and all Iraqi refugees who sought asylum after the war were actually former translators for the Danish forces.
In any case, it is safe to say that Denmark has closed its gates of immigration since the loss of the Social Democratic Party in 2001, and all Iraqi refugees who sought asylum after the war were actually former translators for the Danish forces.In Norrebro, inner Copenhagen, the so-called immigrant ghetto where Danske and immigrant gangs lead drug wars, where Shia'a and Sunni families are described to repeat religious bloodiness, 60 Iraqi asylum seekers sit and wait in Borsons church. They have reached focal point in both local and international media as them and 250 other Iraqis are facing forced repatriation. I quote Andreas Kamm, head of the Danish Refugee Council,
"Many of the Iraqi asylum-seekers here have been in the country for five to ten years. For most of that time the situation in their country has been so unstable that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has recommended that countries like Denmark give them protection. Denmark has ignored this. The politicians have instead insisted that people go back to a country so clearly aflame."I guess you could read more about this online, but I found a really touching article by a Danish volunteer, remembering Oskar Schindler and how history will not repeat itself again.
Happy World Refugee Day.
