Mahmood visits Danish returns centre to press tough immigration line

Shabana Mahmood toured the Sjælsmark returns centre, a former military barracks used to house people with no right to remain. Followed by photographers, reporters and civil servants, she was shown the strict conditions in which hundreds live after asylum and right to remain appeals are rejected and before many are sent to other countries.

Her two-day visit was intended to press the view that the UK must replicate the Danish immigration model to counter the rise of a populist right. Mahmood urged colleagues to acknowledge that the public had "legitimate grievances" about people arriving in small boats and the strain on public services, adding: "That resentment is real." Denmark’s system grants temporary permission to some refugees who may later be told to leave, and camps such as Sjælsmark operate with high fences, CCTV and strict rules; refugee campaigners say they function as open prisons.

Denmark, Sjælsmark

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