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Denmark Wants to Copy Australia’s Controversial Offshore Detention Model

Six anti-immigration Danish MPs will visit Nauru this weekend, researching how the model could be applied back home.

Beautiful sunny Denmark. Image via

Six members of Danish parliament are set to visit Australia's offshore detention camp at Nauru, following the publication of thousands of reports revealing cases of abuse and assault taking place there. The delegation will reportedly fly to the island on Saturday, August 27.

Some Danish MPs have expressed concern about reported conditions on Nauru, which have also been criticised by the United Nations. However, this visit is more about researching the centre's model. For a few months now, Denmark's government has been considering adopting similar hardline immigration policies to Australia.

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A movement led by the anti-immigration Danish People's Party (DPP) has pushed for the country to adopt the "Australian solution," sending refugees to be processed in camps outside of the country's borders. The DPP isn't an insignificant force in Danish politics—in parliament, it's a key support to the minority government, led by the conservative-liberal Venstre party.

The European spokesperson for the DPP, Kenneth Kristensen Berth, told the ABC in February that he wanted to make Denmark "the least attractive in western Europe" for asylum seekers.

While there aren't any small Micronesian islands in close proximity to Denmark, the DPP have suggested refugees could be sent to north-eastern Greenland, or to Tanzania in exchange for aid money. Nauru also receives aid money from the Australian government in exchange for hosting its detention centre.

"I think it's the only possible solution. If you don't do anything, then I think the European culture will evaporate in a couple of years," Berth said back in February.

However, not every member of the Nauru delegation agrees with the DPP. One of Saturday's delegates Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen from the socialist-green Enhedslisten party told the Guardian she was worried about conditions on Nauru.

"For me the visit is an opportunity to ask critical questions about the model," she said.

Another Danish MP Jacob Mark, from the Socialist People's Party, isn't a fan of offshore detention either.

"It is also important for those of us who do not agree with the policy to see it with out own eyes," he said.

The news that the MPs will visit Nauru comes at the same time that Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young has called for more access to journalists and Australian MPs on the island. Her recent visa application to visit Nauru—she was last there in 2013—was rejected.

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