This is part three of a joint investigation by Unbias the News and shado mag. Across Europe, people whose asylum claim has been rejected are forced underground to avoid being deported.
When year-old Michael had his asylum application rejected, he felt he had no choice but to go underground to avoid being deported. Although people go underground all across Europe to avoid deportation once their asylum claims have been rejected, communities face a particular set of hardships across Denmark. Through in-depth investigation, it has become clear that Denmark is deliberately infringing on the human rights of people whose asylum has been rejected.
Once the authorities discovered the group, he got kicked out of university, and most of his fellow activists were arrested. Fearing the fate in store for him, Michael decided to flee. After a journey from Uganda through Sudan, Libya and on a dinghy boat across the Mediterranean, he arrived in Greece. There, he applied for asylum, learning Danish as he waited for a decision to be made.
In , it was the first country in the world to legalise gay marriage. In , it became the first European country to allow trans people to affirm their gender — no medical expert approval needed. This progressive track record should extend to the asylum system. The NGO found that when Danish immigration officials assess credibility through interviews, they pose questions that are invasive, stereotypical — and often insensitive to cultural barriers that hinder applicants from discussing sexual orientation openly.
But the answer he finally received in did not reflect this. While these numbers are relatively in line with other European countries, the percentage is much lower for newcomers to the country compared to residence permit holders who later applied for asylum.
