Photographer: John Thys / AFP / Getty Images
Photographer: John Thys / AFP / Getty Images
The woman behind Denmark’s toughest immigration laws will be the country’s first policy to defend herself in a dismissal trial in nearly three decades, after her actions led to the illegal separation of young people refugee couples.
Inger Stojberg, a former immigration minister who was recently forced to step down as deputy director of Denmark’s main opposition party, will be tried after a majority in parliament declared support for the removal. With the next final vote largely a formality, it is the first time the chamber has agreed to proceed with a process of dismissal since 1993.
Stojberg gained notoriety under the previous government after he wrote some of the strictest immigration and asylum laws in the European Union. She is perhaps best known outside Denmark for insisting that refugees hand over their valuables, including jewelery, when applying for asylum. But it was Stojberg’s harsh family reunification policies received harsh criticism from the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, among other groups.
The removal trial will focus on Stojberg’s 2016 instruction to separate refugee couples on arrival if the woman is under 18 years of age. The order ignored the requirements for conducting individual assessments and was deemed illegal by the parliamentary ombudsman after a young Syrian couple complained. Stojberg was later found to have lied in the chamber when she was called to explain her decision.
The dismissal trial was followed by an investigation that identified Stojberg as the sole minister responsible for the alleged illegal instruction. Former Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen has been acquitted of wrongdoing.
Stojberg has argued that his decision to separate couples was based on a desire to protect girls from marrying before they became adults. In all, 23 couples separated as a result of their order. Age differences between males and females ranged from 16 years to one year.
In Denmark, a trial for dismissal can only be initiated by parliament or the monarch. After the legislature agrees that this trial is appropriate, the case is transferred to the Repeachment Court of the Kingdom of Denmark, which is made up of judges and experts from the supreme court appointed by parliament.
The decision was a rare sign of unity between party lines, even with Stojberg’s own party, the Liberals, who supported the removal.
“I am a little disappointed that my own president has invited the rest of parliament to initiate a dismissal trial against me,” Stojberg told reporters in parliament following the party’s decision. “It’s the highest vote of confidence I can get from my own president.”
The last politician to be charged was Erik Ninn-Hansen, a former justice minister who was found guilty in 1995. He was sentenced to four months in prison suspended for his role in illegally preventing the entry of Tamil refugees into Denmark. The scandal ended up overthrowing the conservative government of the time.
(Updates with comments on the penultimate paragraph)