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HOMANN LAW specializes in immigration and refugee law. For more information about what we can offer in these areas, click here. For more information about this article, contact attorney at law Bjørn Dilou Jacobsen. Mr. Jacobsen is an experienced asylum law attorney, who, inter alia, appears before the Danish Refugee Appeals Board and also has experience with filing international complaints in asylum cases.Criticism of report on Eritrea published by the Danish Immigration Service
After having received an extraordinary large amount of refugees from Eritrea in 2014 in Denmark, it was decided that the Danish Immigration Service was to investigate the actual conditions in Eritrea and draft a report hereon. This report has been published now and can be found here:
www.nyidanmark.dk/Ny rapport om forhold i Eritrea
In light of the conclusions of the report, it was fair to assume that the Danish Immigration Service was aiming for a more strict approach in regard to the many refugees from Eritrea, especially since the report may be read as to say that the outset is that there is no general need for asylum for people from Eritrea who has evaded military service or who has left the country illegally, see for example (in Danish):
www.politiken.dk/Udlændingestyrelsen lægger op til ny praksis over for de mange asylansøgere fra Eritrea
Subsequently, the report has been criticized heavily, including by one of the named sources to the report, professor Gaim Kibreab from London. He has stated that his information on Eritrea has been misused in the report, and, as a result, he no longer wants to be cited as a contributor to the report. Further, staff from the Immigration Service has criticized the manner in which the report was drawn up, see for example (in Danish):
www.berlingske.dk/Embedsmand står frem: Vi skulle nå et bestemt resultat
Most recently, the Danish Immigration Service has stated in a press release that it – despite the report – will give people from Eritrea applying or asylum the benefit of the doubt. As such, it must be assumed that the upcoming practice in these cases will be less strict than first expected. The press release can be seen here (mainly in Danish):
www.nyidanmark.dk/Udlændingestyrelsens vurdering af visse generelle forhold vedrørende asylansøgere fra Eritrea/
See a short description of the entire case history here (in Danish):
www.berlingske.dk/Forstå Eritrea sagen på fem minutter
On the basis of this it can be concluded that when dealing with asylum cases with refugees from Eritrea, it is important to focus on the back ground information on Eritrea used by the authorities, and whether the information used is sufficient to provide the necessary protection to those in need hereof.