The Danish government has presented a radical plan to reduce the problems in 22 immigrant districts. For example, residents in these neighborhoods can be punished twice as badly in case of a crime.
At the same time, the government wants to encourage promising residents to live in these neighborhoods.
The Danish prime minister, flanked by seven of his ministers, presented his new ghetto plan in the lion’s den: “Mjølnerparken” in Copenhagen, the most notorious ghetto in Denmark.
On arrival, the ministers were met by a group of peaceful protesters with signs stating “equal laws for everyone”. The Integration Minister, Inge Støjberg, reacted shakingly: “They are here to demonstrate for equal laws, while here the Sharia law applies,” Støjberg said. Zones with higher penalties
According to the Danish government, it is high time for a harder approach. This year there are 22 neighborhoods on the so-called ‘gettolijst’; immigrant neighborhoods that are regarded as separate communities within society. If you commit a crime as a resident of this neighborhood, you can be punished twice as hard according to the new plan. “Discriminatory,” admits the prime minister, but the goal justifies the means: in 12 years, according to the government, Denmark is free of ghettos. Denmark, with a small population of six million, has made numerous adjustments to the asylum and immigration policy over the past twenty years.
The small country is known in Europe for its strict immigration policy. But according to the Danish government, the anti-gtta policy has completely failed. That is why the liberal Prime Minister Rasmussen wants to introduce stricter legislation for residents from these neighborhoods.
The police are given the task of designating zones in the problem neighborhoods. If you are arrested in such a zone for drug trafficking, for example, a robbery or a threat, you can count on a double punishment.
The Danish government’s approach has met with a lot of criticism in its own country, as it breaks with fundamental legal principles. Moreover, critics point to the scenario that crime problems only move to neighboring neighborhoods, creating a waterbed effect.
At the same time, the government is trying to persuade promising residents with a job to make use of the relatively cheap rented housing. This is done first of all by sending away residents who cause most problems. Housing associations will be made easier to remove families from an apartment if one of the family members receives a prison sentence.
Also new laws in schools
The housing association can now also refuse tenants with a criminal record.And unemployed people in the welfare system are prevented from going into one of these neighborhoods. If they do, their assistance will be halved.
New laws apply in the problem neighborhoods at schools and day care centers.Rectors may give priority to students with good grades. And parents of young children are obliged to send their child from 1 year to childcare. If they do not agree with this, the child benefit can be reduced.
“I see holes in the map of Denmark, districts where a large proportion of the residents are on social assistance, do not speak Danish and women have fewer rights,” says Danish Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen. “We do not accept that, we have to close these holes.”
