Danish Minister of Integration Mattias Tesfaye has come out with a statement that he was happy to announce that for the first time ever, a higher number of refugees were leaving Denmark than coming to country: 'Lovely numbers. The policy of the government is to make sure that refugees’ stay is temporary. When possible, it’s only natural that refugees go home to their countries of origin. I’m happy to give people protection when they need it. But I’m also happy every time a refugee can return home.'

The minister refers to new statistics showing that 886 refugees from Syria chose to go back voluntarily, most of them having received financial assistance from the Danish state to help them resettle. But 373 Somali refugees lost their residence permit after several years in Denmark, when the authorities announced that Somalia was now deemed to be more safe now than when the refugees first sought protection. This was met with strong criticism from NGOs and lawyers, and more than half of the cases where overturned by the Refugee Appeals Board. Many of the Somalis with revoked residence status were lucky to become part of the voluntary return program providing economic support as long as they applied between the first end second instance decisions. 

In Denmark, refugees are only granted one or two years of stay at a time, with permits periodically extended. Permanent stay is not granted automatically but may be applied for after eight years of residence and after the fulfilment of a number of criteria concerning language fluency and employment.

At the same time, improvements in the security situation in the country of origin can lead to a revocation of a refugee's temporary residence permit. This is a cause of stress among refugees and makes it hard to make future plans for education, family, housing, private businesses, and more.

Denmark is seeing the lowest number of new asylum seekers ever, with 498 applications submitted in total over the first three months of 2020. Since 2017, the Danish quota for accepting 500 refugees resettled through the UNHCR per year has been put on hold, but is now coming back slowly into effect with 30 refugees accepted from Syria so far in 2020. At the same time, integration indicators showing how many refugees have managed to become self-sufficient has never been better.