Children in deportation centres

Several hundred children lived for years in the Sjælsmark deportation centre under appalling conditions. After massive public pressure and psychological reports, all asylum-seeking families with children who had been rejected were moved to Avnstrup, where the physical conditions are somewhat better.

But the problem of children being housed in asylum centres is not new. Since 2007, Refugees Welcome has been fighting against children growing up in camps without basic rights and with constant uncertainty about their future. It is well documented that they develop serious mental health problems under these conditions. Our report on the departure system, ‘A firm hand on the back’, contains a chapter on children whose asylum cases have been rejected.

Read also about our efforts regarding the best interests of the child and Section 9c(1). Most recently, in 2025, we published an article on children's attachment, which shows that the prolonged pressure and numerous complaints have yielded good results through the legal system.

We wrote about children stuck in the asylum system in the article ‘A childhood in no man's land’ in 2017, and we had an article published in Altinget in 2018: ‘Unnecessary for politicians to take asylum-seeking children hostage’ (in Danish). Informations Ulrik Dahlin kept the spotlight regularly on the issue. Olav Hergel from Politiken has described several of the children in the Sjælsmark departure centre in a series of articles, including some of the children for whom RW has run cases.

RW was part of the People's Movement for the Future of Asylum Children 2017-2021 (link to FB page, website has been shut down), where we drafted a citizens' proposal with three demands for improving the children's situation. The proposal obtained 50,000 signatories and was discussed in parliament, and we met with the immigration committee to present it.
 
Denmark should not grant residence to every child who is refused asylum. And it is of course up to the parents to take care of their children. But after a number of years in this country with Danish friends and Danish schooling, the balance tips, and it becomes strongly contrary to the child's best interests to travel back to dangerous countries such as Afghanistan, Somalia or Congo.
 
RW has worked persistently to draw attention to the fact that asylum-seeking children are also protected by the Convention on the Rights of the Child. They must be treated as subjects with their own rights, not as baggage in their parents' case. The authorities must investigate whether the child themselves has a motive for asylum (e.g. female circumcision, forced recruitment as a soldier, forced marriage), and whether the child's safety, development and survival can be ensured in their home country. In the report The Character of Exception, we demonstrated that the law on humanitarian residence is never applied to children.
 
Although there is a long way still to go, we have helped to achieve certain improvements for asylum-seeking children. There is much greater awareness in society about their plight, the best interests of the child have been written into legislation, and in a few cases, they have been granted residence.