A Danish law requiring a three-year waiting period for the families of asylum-seekers to join them violates their right to family life, Europe’s top rights court ruled Friday. The European Court of Human Rights found that Danish authorities did not strike a fair balance between the rights of a 62-year-old Syrian asylum seeker and the interests of the country when they denied his wife a residency permit.
This study examines whether family separation caused by prolonged waiting times for family reunification is associated with the risk of psychological disorders – such as PTSD – among refugee fathers. The study was conducted by the Danish Rockwool Foundation Research Unit and the University of Copenhagen. According to its researchers, this is the first large-scale cohort study to demonstrate that family separation is associated with an increased risk of psychological disorders among refugee fathers.
The aim of this study was to compare profiles of present mental health and previous exposure to violence among refugee children from the Middle East, whose asylum seeking families either did or did not obtain permission to stay in Denmark.
Policies regarding family reunification have become increasingly strict over the last years, especially after the influx of asylum applications that all Scandinavian countries received in the summer and autumn of 2015. Shortly after, the number of asylum applications rapidly decreased, while the number of family reunification applications have continued to increase in recent years. The report, commissioned by UNHCR, is a comparative legal study of the legal framework, policies and practice pertaining to the family reunification procedure in Norway, Sweden and Denmark.
We are a human-rights-based development organization that strives to mitigate the consequences of severe human rights violations, such as collective violence. We support and empower victims/survivors of human rights violations and seek to change the conditions that perpetuate collective violence through preventative strategies.
Children constitute an important part of asylum seekers whether they arrive With their families or alone. In 2003, there were more than 17 million refugees (43 per cent of refugees), asylum seekers and others who are of concern to the UNHCR. Of these millions of people, it is estimated that children under the age of five make up 11 per cent and 32 per cent are children aged six to seventeen. Many of these children have experienced war, violence, acts of cruelty and similar traumas. Others have been exposed indirectly through their parents traumatizing experiences. Such experiences are today increasingly recognized as being a similar burden to a child as if they are assaulted themselves. The adults often have very big problems and the children run the risk of having their problems concealed. Registration data and statistics are generally not produced in a way that makes the exposed situation of children visible. The childrens reasons for asylum in their own right are rarely investigated.
OASIS is a private treatment center for traumatized refugees, asylum seekers and their families. OASIS holds a holistic view of refugees` suffering, which is reflected in the center`s interdisciplinary treatment model.
(only available in Danish) The center has since 1986 treated people that have been exposed to traumatic events such as torture, persecution, imprisonment, war, death threats and other forms of organized violence, and thus suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and a number of other complications.
DIGNITY’s vision is a world without torture. Their mission is to be the leading global organization for research-based prevention of torture, rehabilitation of traumatized victims, and documentation of serious human rights violations. (DIGNITY, former known as RCT.) DIGNITY is headquartered in Copenhagen and currently employs around 140 staff globally. We have active partnerships with more than 30 local and international NGOs and research institutions around the world.
In 1991 the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) launched the Psychological Support Programme (PSP) as a crosscutting programme under the Health & Care Division. To assist the IFRC with the implementation of the programme, the Danish Red Cross and IFRC established the Reference Centre for Psychological Support as a centre of excellence in 1993
RCF is a pre-rehabilitation- and treatment centre operating within the statutory framework concerning the employment legislation for refugees with psycho-social problems and difficulties with integration into the Danish system, such as the repercussions of torture, war and escape (in Danish).