Authored by Thomas Brooke via Remix News,
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has announced plans for deportation reform aimed at expelling more foreign nationals convicted of serious crimes, using her New Year’s address to argue that Denmark must put public safety and victims first, even if doing so pushes the boundaries of international conventions.
“The government will soon present a comprehensive deportation reform,” Frederiksen said.
“This will mean that even more criminal foreigners will have to be sent out of Denmark.”
She drew a clear distinction between immigrants who, in her words, had embraced Denmark and those who commit crimes.
“You can be Danish even if your favorite dish isn’t meatballs or mackerel sandwiches, for that matter. We Danes, don’t look the same. Nor should we. But we should love each other.”
Frederiksen’s tone hardened when addressing the current issues regarding criminality and integration.
“In Denmark, when democracy and religion collide, it is God who has the right of way,” she said, before adding:
“Therefore, to the people who have come here and are committing crimes: You shouldn’t be here. We don’t want your madness and culture of dominance. You are destroying the most beautiful country in the world, and you should not be allowed to do that.”
She cited specific cases to underline what she described as systemic failures.
“No one can understand why an Iraqi man convicted of brutally assaulting an innocent person with a golf club cannot be deported,” Frederiksen said.
“Nor why a previously convicted man from Kosovo, convicted of abusing his children and spouse for several years, can be allowed to stay here.”
Under the government’s proposal, foreigners would be deported if they commit serious crimes and receive a prison sentence of at least one year, regardless of their length of stay or personal ties to Denmark.
“This makes it a very clear starting point,” Frederiksen said.
“If you are convicted of, for example, rape, aggravated assault, or other serious crime, then your stay in Denmark is over.”
Frederiksen said Denmark already deports many criminal foreigners due to what she described as a strict immigration policy that goes “to the edge of conventions.” She argued that the government could now go further because Denmark, together with Italy, had succeeded before Christmas in gathering support from 27 countries for a new interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights. “Now, first and foremost, it must be the populations – and the victims – who are protected. And not the perpetrator,” she said. “Instead of waiting several years for it to take effect in court practice, we are taking the lead and implementing legislation before the summer.”
In October last year, a government report revealed that nearly three-quarters of those convicted under Denmark’s so-called gang clause have immigrant backgrounds from non-Western countries. Data released by the Ministry of Justice showed that between 2018 and 2025, 213 people were convicted under Section 81a of the Criminal Code, which allows courts to double sentences for crimes likely to provoke gang violence. Of those convicted, 54 were of Danish origin, 36 were immigrants from non-Western countries, and 117 were descendants of non-Western immigrants, meaning 72 percent had non-Western roots. Conservative immigration spokesman Frederik Bloch Münster described the figure as “remarkably high.”
Denmark has already moved to tighten deportation rules. In December 2024, the government announced plans to abolish the so-called ladder system, which limits deportation based on the severity of a crime and the offender’s length of stay in the country. The proposed reform would allow the deportation of any foreign national sentenced to an unconditional prison term, unless doing so would breach Denmark’s international obligations.
“Unfortunately, foreigners in Denmark are overrepresented in the crime statistics and too often commit serious crimes — such as those related to gang activity. We don’t have to deal with that. The hammer must fall even harder,” said Immigration and Integration Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek at the time.
“Therefore, we want to tighten the rules so that we can get even more criminal aliens deported. Every criminal alien who is deported by Denmark is a victory for the legal community and a victory for our country.”
The deportation push is part of a broader tightening of Denmark’s approach to immigration and national identity. Since Jan. 1, 2025, it has been illegal to raise foreign flags without special permission, following new legislation passed by the Folketing after a Supreme Court ruling struck down a 1915 ban. The new rule restored restrictions while allowing exceptions for Nordic flags, Germany, Greenland, the Faroe Islands, and specific contexts such as sporting events, demonstrations, or special permits granted by police or the justice minister.
Justice Minister Peter Hummelgaard defended the measure last December, saying, “The Dannebrog is the most important national symbol we have in Denmark. A symbol that binds the Danes together as a people, and which should enjoy a very special status in Denmark.”
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