‘They are fleeing from war and how do we treat them? We take their jewellery.” Danish MP Pernille Skipper (Red-Green Alliance) echoed the anger which many Danes and international organisations feel about the Bill passed on Tuesday by the Folketing. It will allow police to search asylum seekers and luggage to seize cash and valuables – any non-essential items worth more than € 1,300. Notionally, it is to pay for their welfare benefits. In the face of wide outrage, the government amended it to exclude from seizure sentimental items such as wedding rings.
These are people who may have crossed a continent on foot, a sea in an overcrowded boat, smuggled family and what worldly goods could be carried from homes in war zones. Tired, vulnerable and hungry. Desperate people who have already run the gauntlet of human traffickers and bandits extracting their heavy tolls. And then to find safety in a “civilised” EU state, only to face police searches and confiscation of most of what little they have left.
True, the Danes are not the first. Switzerland and some of the German Lander also take valuables from asylum seekers. The Dutch government over the last four years has collected about €700,000 to help pay for their lodgings.
It is utterly unconvincing, however, to suggest this is primarily a revenue-raising measure. Like Ireland’s grim asylum hostels and direct provision system, it’s a policy designed above all to deter, to persuade those on the road to Europe that their ultimate destination should be another European country. It’s also a policy designed to placate the growing anti-migrant mood that has infected the Nordic countries as elsewhere – “see”, the government is saying, “we are taking action against these foreigners, these parasites”.
And, yes, Danish welfare recipients are also means-tested at a similar level – there is no reason why such rules could not be applied to asylum seekers. But the police do not have powers to search and seize without specific court orders. Such powers directed against migrants are intended for show, simply to intimidate.