Former Danish immigration minister Inger Stojberg, known for her hardline stance in that role, was handed a 60-day prison sentence on Monday by an impeachment court for having illegally ordered the separation of under-age couples seeking asylum.
The centre-right politician, who served as minister from 2015 to 2019, said the aim of the action was to stamp out child marriages.
In the impeachment trial, which was only Denmark’s sixth in more than 170 years and the first since 1995, she was accused of knowingly breaking the law in 2016 by ordering the separation of underage refugee couples.
Denmark has over the last decade gained notoriety for its hardline immigration policies, such as allowing authorities to confiscate asylum seekers’ jewellery and deterring Middle Eastern refugees through newspaper advertisements in their countries.
Stojberg was also behind a plan to hold foreign criminals facing deportation on a tiny island, although the plan was later abandoned by the current government.
The case started when a Syrian couple complained to the country’s ombudsman in 2016 after they were placed in separate asylum centres.
Stojberg repeatedly denied giving any illegal order and said she wanted to protect the underage girls.
Under Danish and human rights law, each couple must be assessed individually, implying that the minister’s order to separate all underage couples was illegal.
In total, 23 couples were separated.
An investigation into the case, also known as the “child bride case”, concluded in December 2020 that the order to indiscriminately separate all underage couples was “clearly illegal” and in breach of human rights. - Reuters
