Looking out to sea through the winter gloom and Danish sleet, the tiny island of Lindholm looks an inhospitable place, as far from the idealised paradise of swaying palms and yellow sand that it’s possible to be. The Danish government wouldn’t want it any other way.
Buffeted by the grey Baltic Sea, Lindholm was chosen by Copenhagen for people Danish officials want to tuck away and forget – foreigners who have been refused refugee status or asylum but cannot be returned home because they may face torture or execution.
According to government plans announced this month, from 2021 Lindholm will be home to about 100 to 125 people that the country’s anti-immigration party calls “foreign criminals”. They are not meant to like it much.
"There won't be much to do. It's not supposed to be a holiday," Martin Henriksen, a senior official for the Danish People's Party told The National. "Maybe they can paint the houses or help with construction work. Unpaid? Yes."
The rise of the DPP to become Denmark’s second-largest party has been mirrored by increasing government hostility to migrants, and Mr Henriksen is keen for the world to know about it. Previous anti-migrant measures were accompanied by advertisements in foreign media to send a message that Denmark is not laying out the welcome mat.
Despite his party coming third in 2015 national elections, Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen heads a minority centre-right administration but relies on the DPP to pass legislation. The Lindholm plan is part of a budget package that is set for a parliamentary vote this week.
The seven-acre site is ringed by larger, populated islands of southern Denmark and is just a couple of miles from the tiny port town of Kalvehave.
A ferry service runs regularly through the day to Lindholm carrying scientists and supplies for veterinary research on animal diseases.
Its relative isolation made it an ideal choice to open a research centre in the 1920s but Denmark’s Technical University, which runs the ferry service, is closing the facility and relocating its staff to Copenhagen, a 70-mile drive to the north.
The move cleared the way for the government to step in and rebrand Lindholm, one of more than 400 Danish islands, as a dedicated centre for the unwanted – rejected asylum seekers with criminal records who cannot be sent home for legal reasons.
Under the plan, the island's residents can leave Lindholm during the day but have to remain there overnight. Officials have spoken of pitching ferry tickets at high prices and limiting services to dissuade them from ever leaving the island.
After edging the Ulvsund into its berth at the end of one round trip, ferry master Jan Rongaard – employed by the university – declined to comment on the plans but has expressed concerns for the security of his staff in local media.
“Depriving them of their liberty, isolating them, and stigmatising them will only increase their vulnerability,” said UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet in her criticism of the scheme.
The plan has been greeted by near universal condemnation in and around the town of Kalvehave.
“It works for viruses. It doesn’t work for people,” said Joachim Brix-Hansen, a local businessman and vocal campaigner against the plans.
Mr Brix-Hansen, 49, lives a couple of hundred metres from the ferry dock but has never visited the island because of the permit system to prevent contamination. “We feel we’ve been forced to accept this because the state of Denmark owns a tiny island where we live.”
The plan was inspired by Australia’s detention centre on Christmas Island, a tiny rock in the Indian Ocean that holds a group of people who face deportation after serving prison sentences.
In 2016, Mr Henriksen was part of a Danish delegation that went to see how the much-criticised Australian system worked. “Australia treats refugees horribly. But Denmark wants a peek at that playbook,” one article about the visit read.
Mr Henriksen brushed aside concerns that limits to the residents’ movements would fall foul of human rights laws that allows freedom of movement for people who have served their sentences.
Rights groups said they would monitor the project. “A cell is not necessarily a cell with bars on the windows but other conditions that adds up to the equivalent of detention. That’s our concern,” said Louise Holck, of the Danish Human Rights Institute.
She cited a ruling from 1980 when Europe’s human rights courts found against Italy after its authorities moved a suspected mafia leader to a small island, put him under close police supervision and restricted his movements.
Campaigners from one pro-migrant group said they would flout the controls by sending dinghies to collect migrants when the ferry was not running. Mr Henriksen said he would lobby the government to establish an exclusion zone by law.
He added that the government planned to put a small police station on Lindholm to monitor those living there, as well as beefing up the number of officers in Kalvehave in a failed attempt to placate local fears.
“It’s a silly decision and a wrong decision,” said Mikael Smed a police officer and mayor for the region of 46,000 people, a quiet area popular with the retired and tourists. The largest employer makes biscuits.
He is one of the few locals who visited the island as part of an ill-fated lobbying exercise to keep the scientific facility running.
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Read more:
UN's global migration pact draws US ire days before signing
UN to adopt migration pact at meeting hit by withdrawals
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The island’s white buildings, that can be viewed from the mainland, will be razed as part of a major clean-up that will cost an estimated 759 million Danish kronor (Dh421 million).
Mr Smed said the decision to assess, select and budget for Lindholm was decided in 20 days and he expects costs to rise.
"They are using a lot of tax money and not solving the real problem,” said Mr Smed. “I haven’t met anyone who thinks that this is a good idea.”
Critics said it was a symbolic policy designed to attract headlines but deflects attention from more significant reforms, including cuts to benefits for asylum seekers.
In a Facebook post after the proposal was announced, the country’s Integration Minister Inger Stojberg said the group must feel “unwanted” in Denmark.
Denmark tightened its laws for immigrants despite UN figures showing that the country has been affected significantly less than neighbouring Germany and Sweden by the 2015 migrant crisis.
EU figures show that Denmark has received 39,000 asylum seekers or refugees since 2011. Sweden, which has double the population, has had 267,000.
Denmark also pulled out of a UN resettlement programme leading to the lowest number of asylum seekers there in a decade.
The measures include a 2016 law that allowed the country's authorities to seize valuables from migrants to help finance the costs of their stay. The government has also stepped up efforts to deport those whose applications are rejected.
Mr Henriksen said the island plan was for the 20 per cent of failed applicants who could not be removed and are currently held in three other centres. “If it were up to us, they would stay until their dying days on the island or just decide by themselves to leave,” said Mr Henriksen.
Professor Peter Nedergaard, a political scientist at Copenhagen University, said that the measure was wrongly viewed as part of a wider anti-migrant agenda. “If you …. interview civil servants they simply do not recognise this picture. Denmark is a very pragmatic country. If we have a problem, we ask: ‘How do we solve it?'”
In Kalvehave, population 2,000, officials have vowed to fight the government’s plans. Flyers advertising a meeting to allow residents to voice their views were posted around the town. Officials had hoped that they could turn the town with its small harbour into a thriving tourist centre, with Lindholm transformed into a nature sanctuary or artists' retreat.
Members of the local liberal party gathered on Tuesday at the community centre on the harbour to plan their next move, but senior officials unwillingly accepted that the government had the numbers to push the plan through.
“Will it happen?” said Sven-Erik Petersen, a party official. “That’s the one question we don’t like to answer.”
HIJRA
Starring: Lamar Faden, Khairiah Nathmy, Nawaf Al-Dhufairy
Director: Shahad Ameen
Rating: 3/5
UAE%20athletes%20heading%20to%20Paris%202024
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Red flags
- Promises of high, fixed or 'guaranteed' returns.
- Unregulated structured products or complex investments often used to bypass traditional safeguards.
- Lack of clear information, vague language, no access to audited financials.
- Overseas companies targeting investors in other jurisdictions - this can make legal recovery difficult.
- Hard-selling tactics - creating urgency, offering 'exclusive' deals.
Courtesy: Carol Glynn, founder of Conscious Finance Coaching
THE BIO: Martin Van Almsick
Hometown: Cologne, Germany
Family: Wife Hanan Ahmed and their three children, Marrah (23), Tibijan (19), Amon (13)
Favourite dessert: Umm Ali with dark camel milk chocolate flakes
Favourite hobby: Football
Breakfast routine: a tall glass of camel milk
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
AI traffic lights to ease congestion at seven points to Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street
The seven points are:
Shakhbout bin Sultan Street
Dhafeer Street
Hadbat Al Ghubainah Street (outbound)
Salama bint Butti Street
Al Dhafra Street
Rabdan Street
Umm Yifina Street exit (inbound)
DUBAI%20BLING%3A%20EPISODE%201
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HOW TO WATCH
Facebook: TheNationalNews
Twitter: @thenationalnews
Instagram: @thenationalnews.com
TikTok: @thenationalnews
Key findings of Jenkins report
- Founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, Hassan al Banna, "accepted the political utility of violence"
- Views of key Muslim Brotherhood ideologue, Sayyid Qutb, have “consistently been understood” as permitting “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” and “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement.
- Muslim Brotherhood at all levels has repeatedly defended Hamas attacks against Israel, including the use of suicide bombers and the killing of civilians.
- Laying out the report in the House of Commons, David Cameron told MPs: "The main findings of the review support the conclusion that membership of, association with, or influence by the Muslim Brotherhood should be considered as a possible indicator of extremism."
THREE
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The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
RESULTS
5pm: Wathba Stallions Cup Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (Dirt) 1,600m
Winner: Samau Xmnsor, Abdul Aziz Al Balushi (jockey), Ibrahim Al Hadhrami (trainer)
5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner: Ottoman, Szczepan Mazur, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner: Sharkh, Patrick Cosgrave, Helal Al Alawi
6.30pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 85,000 (D) 1,800m
Winner: Yaraa, Fernando Jara, Majed Al Jahouri
7pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 2,000m
Winner: Maaly Al Reef, Bernardo Pinheiro, Abdallah Al Hammadi
7.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner: Jinjal, Fabrice Veron, Ahmed Al Shemaili
8pm: Handicap (PA) Dh 70,000 (D) 1,000m
Winner: Al Sail, Tadhg O’Shea, Ernst Oertel
The%20specs
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
If you go
The flights
There are direct flights from Dubai to Sofia with FlyDubai (www.flydubai.com) and Wizz Air (www.wizzair.com), from Dh1,164 and Dh822 return including taxes, respectively.
The trip
Plovdiv is 150km from Sofia, with an hourly bus service taking around 2 hours and costing $16 (Dh58). The Rhodopes can be reached from Sofia in between 2-4hours.
The trip was organised by Bulguides (www.bulguides.com), which organises guided trips throughout Bulgaria. Guiding, accommodation, food and transfers from Plovdiv to the mountains and back costs around 170 USD for a four-day, three-night trip.
RedCrow Intelligence Company Profile
Started: 2016
Founders: Hussein Nasser Eddin, Laila Akel, Tayeb Akel
Based: Ramallah, Palestine
Sector: Technology, Security
# of staff: 13
Investment: $745,000
Investors: Palestine’s Ibtikar Fund, Abu Dhabi’s Gothams and angel investors
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
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Five expert hiking tips
Always check the weather forecast before setting off
Make sure you have plenty of water
Set off early to avoid sudden weather changes in the afternoon
Wear appropriate clothing and footwear
Take your litter home with you
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
MATCH INFO
Tottenham Hotspur 3 (Son 1', Kane 8' & 16') West Ham United 3 (Balbuena 82', Sanchez og 85', Lanzini 90' 4)
Man of the match Harry Kane
WIDE%20VIEW
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Company%20Profile
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Company%20Profile
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
Employment lawyer Meriel Schindler of Withers Worldwide shares her tips on achieving equal pay
Do your homework
Make sure that you are being offered a fair salary. There is lots of industry data available, and you can always talk to people who have come out of the organisation. Where I see people coming a cropper is where they haven’t done their homework.
Don’t be afraid to negotiate
It’s quite standard to negotiate if you think an offer is on the low side. The job is unlikely to be withdrawn if you ask for money, and if that did happen I’d question whether you want to work for an employer who is so hypersensitive.
Know your worth
Women tend to be a bit more reticent to talk about their achievements. In my experience they need to have more confidence in their own abilities – men will big up what they’ve done to get a pay rise, and to compete women need to turn up the volume.
Work together
If you suspect men in your organisation are being paid more, look your boss in the eye and say, “I want you to assure me that I’m paid equivalent to my peers”. If you’re not getting a straight answer, talk to your peer group and consider taking direct action to fix inequality.
The years Ramadan fell in May
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
Tuskar Rock Press (pp. 310)
Results
2.30pm: Dubai Creek Tower – Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (Dirt) 1,200m; Winner: Marmara Xm, Gary Sanchez (jockey), Abdelkhir Adam (trainer)
3pm: Al Yasmeen – Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m; Winner: AS Hajez, Jesus Rosales, Khalifa Al Neyadi
3.30pm: Al Ferdous – Maiden (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 1,700m; Winner: Soukainah, Sebastien Martino, Jean-Claude Pecout
4pm: The Crown Prince Of Sharjah – Prestige (PA) Dh200,000 (D) 1,200m; Winner: AF Thayer, Ray Dawson, Ernst Oertel
4.30pm: Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Cup – Handicap (TB) Dh200,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: George Villiers, Antonio Fresu, Bhupat Seemar
5pm: Palma Spring – Handicap (PA) Dh40,000 (D) 2,000m; Winner: Es Abu Mousa, Antonio Fresu, Abubakar Daud
If you go:
The flights: Etihad, Emirates, British Airways and Virgin all fly from the UAE to London from Dh2,700 return, including taxes
The tours: The Tour for Muggles usually runs several times a day, lasts about two-and-a-half hours and costs £14 (Dh67)
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is on now at the Palace Theatre. Tickets need booking significantly in advance
Entrance to the Harry Potter exhibition at the House of MinaLima is free
The hotel: The grand, 1909-built Strand Palace Hotel is in a handy location near the Theatre District and several of the key Harry Potter filming and inspiration sites. The family rooms are spacious, with sofa beds that can accommodate children, and wooden shutters that keep out the light at night. Rooms cost from £170 (Dh808).
The specs: 2019 Infiniti QX50
Price, base: Dh138,000 (estimate)
Engine: 2.0L, turbocharged, in-line four-cylinder
Transmission: Continuously variable transmission
Power: 268hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 380Nm @ 4,400rpm
Fuel economy: 6.7L / 100km (estimate)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
What She Ate: Six Remarkable Women & the Food That Tells Their Stories
Laura Shapiro
Fourth Estate
