Sir Keir Starmer’s warning that uncontrolled immigration risks creating an ‘island of strangers’ has prompted fury across much of the British left – including excitable comparisons to Enoch Powell.
But head to Denmark and you’ll find their fellow-wingers aren’t just outspoken about the need to tackle the issue – they’ve put their words into action, to dramatic effect.
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen made tackling out-of-control immigration a key priority since coming to power in 2019, vowing to pursue a ‘zero-refugee’ policy that involves actively discouraging people from coming to the country.
Despite this measure remaining controversial, no one can deny its success, with asylum claims dropping by almost 90 per cent over the past decade.
Last year they plummeted to 2,333, while the UK total hit a record 108,138.
And while Reform UK surged in this month’s local elections on an anti-immigration ticket, right-wing parties with similar policies in Denmark performed poorly in the latest European elections.
It’s no surprise Britain’s ailing Prime Minister is interested in Denmark’s migration model, with Sir Keir meeting Mr Fredericksen at Downing Street in February to hear about her approach.
Sir Keir Starmer meeting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen last week
Your browser does not support iframes.
Your browser does not support iframes.
With its impeccably liberal credentials, the Nordic country seems an unlikely source for some of the toughest migration policies in Europe.
But, for Ms Frederiksen’s Social Democrats, opposition to mass immigration is a sensible left-wing position, given its negative impacts mainly fall on those lower down the social ladder.
‘No matter if you look at statistics on crimes or if you look at problems on the labor market, insecurity in local communities, it is the most vulnerable who experience the consequences [of uncontrolled migration],’ Ms Frederiksen said in a widely-reported interview with Politico.
She went on to describe mass migration into Europe as a ‘threat to the daily life’ of the continent, echoing comments made by US Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference.
Denmark’s tough approach to immigration dates back to the 2015 migration crisis, when annual asylum requests reached 21,316 in a country of only six million.
The country famously banned the burka, the garment fully covering the face and body worn by devout Islamic women who’d been brought to the country by their husbands.
New rules came in compelling all newcomers and their children to learn Danish or lose asylum-seeker benefits.
In 2018, the country’s previous government brought in the so-called ‘anti-ghetto law’, which aims to reduce the number of ‘non-Western’ residents in certain housing areas to less than 30 per cent by 2030.
New rules came in compelling all newcomers and their children to learn Danish or lose asylum-seeker benefits
Your browser does not support iframes.
An overhead view of the Sjaelsmark deportation centre for illegal migrants in Denmark
The Sjaelsmark deportation centre, an hour outside of Copenhagen
The rules, which were updated in 2021, give local authorities the right to set up ‘prevention areas’ where they can refuse to rent to those who are not originally from Denmark, the EU or EEA or Switzerland.
Critics have called the policy discriminatory and they are currently being challenged in the European Court of Justice.
However, they continue to receive support from cross-party MPs who urge something be done to force integration.
Other policies appear to quite deliberately introduce a hostile environment for migrants.
Asylum seekers refused the right to stay are denied benefits. They get food, served three times a day, at the country’s two deportation camps
They are sent to the camps to await removal by the Danish Returns Agency, which gets extra funds for results.
As Danish immigration minister Kaare Dybvad Bek recently told the Mail: ‘We stand very hard against giving migrants the right to remain here. If you’re rejected as an asylum seeker, you have a very low possibility of staying in Denmark.’
Controversially, Denmark’s border force has powers to confiscate items such as jewellery and watches from incoming migrants to help fund the cost of their stay.
Migrants who give up on Denmark and return home voluntarily are given a £4,500 sweetener to leave.
In Copenhagen’s immigrant-heavy neighbourhood of Mjolnerparken, locals have been resisting plans to reduce the number of ‘non-Western residents’
Denmark is looking to break up so-called ‘parallel societies’ with large minority demographics
And if a migrant’s country of origin is deemed ‘safe’, such as Syria after the recent fall of President Bashar al-Assad, even a successful asylum seeker can lose Danish residency and face being returned home.
Denmark also publishes league tables of criminal convictions based on the perpetrators’ national origins, something the UK does not do, although Home Secretary Yvette Cooper recently agreed to publish such data by the end of this year.
These tables show that offences, particularly by foreign-born gang members, became an increasing problem after 2015 – a difficult truth that has nonetheless bolstered public support for cutting migration.
The latest polling shows that the Social Democrats remain by far the most popular party, with 22.9 per cent of the vote – nearly 10 points ahead of the second-biggest rival.
By contrast, the Danish People’s Party, which is usually described as far-Right, is on just 4.4 per cent, down from 21.1 per cent ten years ago.
Considering Denmark’s multi-party system, these are numbers Sir Keir could only dream of.
During a visit to Albania last week, the Labour leader announced plans for a Rwanda-style scheme to deport failed asylum seekers to the Balkans while they await deportation – a policy that Denmark is advocating on the EU level using a yet to be determined ‘third country’.
He suggested he would be speaking with the country’s PM, Edi Rama, about the idea of hosting some of these so-called ‘return hubs’ – only for him to immediately rule this out.
An inflatable dinghy pictured carrying migrants makes its way towards the UK
Your browser does not support iframes.
Your browser does not support iframes.
Sir Keir’s announcement, while botched, reflects his desperation to find a deterrent to Channel migrants following a surge in crossings since he came to power.
Arrivals this year have topped 12,000 – an increase of 40 per cent on 2024.
As he observes these numbers tick up – and the popularity of Reform and groups much further to the extremes rising with them – Sir Keir would do well to heed the advice of Danish immigration minister Kaare Dybvad Bek.
‘There is no doubt in my mind that traditional political parties taking immigration seriously is the reason why we don’t have large far-Right parties in Denmark,’ he said in a recent interview.
‘I think that is true for most European countries – if you take immigration back under democratic control, then you restrict how much the far-Right can grow.’
