Michael de Laine

By Michael de Laine, The Copenhagen Voice, 13 August 2009

Seventeen male Iraqi asylum-seekers who had sought refuge in a church in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro district were rounded up by the police in the early hours of this morning.

Seventeen failed male Iraqi asylum-seekers who had sought refuge in Brorson’s Church in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro district in May were arrested by the police in riot gear in the early hours of this morning amid violent demonstrations that ended in five arrests and drawn truncheons.

While women, children and the elderly were allowed to stay with friends or acquaintances, the 17 men, and two more who reportedly voluntarily joined the 17, were driven off in a bus to the Bellahøj police station in Copenhagen, where they arrived at about 4.30 to be identified. They were to be transferred to the closed section of the Sandholm asylum camp north of Copenhagen.

“The Sandholm camp is the only place in the country where deported asylum-seekers can stay, so I presume they are on their way there,” Copenhagen Police information officer Flemming Steen Munch said.

He said the arrest of the Iraqi men was requested by the aliens section of the Danish National Police, who wanted to determine their identity.

“We have arrested 17 young men. They will remain in detention while the police find out whether they are among the failed asylum-seekers to be sent back to Iraq,” Flemming Steen Munch added.

He said the police originally entered the church peacefully to talk to the asylum-seekers and persuade them to leave the church peacefully and voluntarily.

“We tried dialogue, but that didn’t work,” Flemming Steen Munch said.

After that, between 20 and 30 police reportedly broke down the church door.

More than 60 Iraqis, whose asylum applications have been rejected by the Danish authorities, have lived in a form of refuge in Brorson’s Church since May, after Denmark and Iraq signed an agreement under which Iraqi nationals, who had failed to gain asylum in Denmark, could be repatriated.

The agreement, which followed a repatriation agreement between Sweden and Iraq, is controversial, partly because Iraq says it will not accept the forcible return of its citizens. On two occasions - the latest yesterday - Iraq has denied that it has agreed to accept failed asylum-seekers who are repatriated against their will.

“There are no such agreements,” Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said on the Iraqi government website. “All talk of the existence of such agreements is a campaign designed to affect the reputation of the Iraqi government among Iraqi refugees.”