Copenhagen: Former Danish immigration minister Inger Stojberg, known for his tough stance in that role, was handed 60 days on Monday by an impeachment court for illegally ordering the separation of underage couples seeking asylum. was sentenced to prison.
Stojberg was accused of deliberately breaking the law in 2016 by ordering the separation of all asylum-seeking refugee couples where at least one was under the age of 18, a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Under Danish and human rights law, couples must be assessed individually, meaning that the minister’s order to separate all underage couples was illegal. A total of 23 couples separated.
“I am very surprised, very surprised. I think Danish values have been lost,” Stojberg told reporters. “I wanted to and still want to protect these girls.”
The right-wing politician, 2015–19 minister for the Liberal Party, repeatedly denied any illegal orders, saying it was intended to prohibit child marriage and protect underage girls.
Stojberg was considered one of the main architects behind Denmark’s tough immigration policies, such as allowing authorities to confiscate the jewelry of asylum seekers.
“I’m going to take my punishment with my head held high,” she said.
The case began when a Syrian couple complained to the country’s ombudsman in 2016 after they were held in separate asylum centers. A commission launched to investigate the case, also known as the “Bal Vadhu Case”, concluded that the order was “clearly illegal”.
25 of the 26 judges agreed to convict Stojberg in the sixth impeachment court of its kind in the Nordic country for the first time in more than 170 years and since 1995.
“We are satisfied with the verdict,” prosecutors John Lauritzen and Anne Birgit Gammeljord told reporters. “It’s a historic case.”
The decision is final and cannot be appealed against.
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