Brussels, 20/01/2016 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's civil liberties (LIBE) committee will hold a debate on Monday 25 January in the draft Danish law proposing confiscating migrants' possessions to fund their stay in the country, MEPs decided in Strasbourg on Wednesday 20 January. A representative of the Danish government or the country's ambassador to the EU will attend the meeting.
A vote on a proposal put by Liberal MEP Sophie in 't Veld (Netherlands) brought an end to the clamour of the last few days. The Conference of the Presidents of the political groups in the Parliament called on the committee to discuss this matter and a letter from the LIBE coordinators indicated a date at the end of January or start of February would be arranged, Parliament President Martin Schulz said on Wednesday morning. In the meantime, however, the Greens/EFA Group called for a debate to be held in plenary session this week, with group leader Philippe Lamberts accusing his counterparts of seeking to give the Danish government some breathing space, allowing it to pass the law on the 26, as scheduled in the Danish timetable.
Lamberts' proposal was, however, voted down and the civil liberties committee will address the issue on Monday 25 January with a member of the Danish government, which gave its agreement to a discussion. The draft law would allow the police to seize migrants' cash and other possessions to cover the costs of their food and lodgings.
A first version allowed migrants to retain the sum of 3,000 kroner (around €400) and jewellery of sentimental value. However, in view of the outrage caused, Immigration and Integration Minister Inger Stojberg brought forward a less stringent version on 8 January, taking the sum of money that migrants can keep to 10,000 kroner (€1,350), AFP reports.
The final version of the draft law also exempts from seizure any possessions of “particular sentimental value” to their owners - wedding and engagement rings, for example - and useful items, such as watches or mobile phones. In 2015, Denmark received 21,000 asylum requests, putting it among the EU countries that have received most applications in relation to its population (5.4 million), behind Finland, Austria, Germany and Sweden, which has received 163,000 applications. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)