While European countries such as France, Germany, Italy, and Norway have received hundreds of patients from Gaza in recent months, Denmark has become the exception.
Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has confirmed that her government will not accept Palestinians for medical treatment in Danish hospitals. The reason, she explained, is the risk that this measure could open the door to family reunification applications and, consequently, a new wave of migration to the Nordic country.
“The issue of family reunification could arise very quickly,” the leader told the daily Jyllands-Posten on August 15th. The decision enjoys strong public support: a poll by Epinion for public broadcaster DR shows that 46% of citizens support the refusal to host Gazan patients, compared to one-third who are in favor.
This is yet another example of Denmark’s restrictive immigration policy, one of the toughest in Western Europe. What is striking is that the measure does not come from a conservative government but from a socialist leader who, for years, has taken up the banner of migration control. Frederiksen has repeatedly said that “misunderstood hospitality” can have irreversible consequences for the country’s social cohesion. In this respect, her stance is closer to governments such as Hungary’s or Austria’s than to her traditionally more open Scandinavian neighbors.
The prime minister maintains that Denmark will continue to contribute on the humanitarian front but will do so by financing medical care in countries bordering Gaza. “We firmly believe that we can help more people if we do it in the immediate area,” she declared in May.
Frederiksen’s stance not only has public backing but also the support of parties such as the Liberal Alliance (LA) and the Danish Democrats, who insist that aid should be focused in the Middle East. “This does not belong in Denmark. We are thousands of kilometers from Gaza, and there is no justification at all,” said the Danish Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesperson, Charlotte Munch.
For its part, the Socialist People’s Party (SF) has proposed admitting symbolically between five and ten sick children, although it agrees that the priority should be strengthening hospitals in Cairo, Amman, or East Jerusalem.
