This article is written by Mustafa Alio, managing director of Jumpstart Refugee Talent, a non-profit organisation in Canada

Alaa Mohammad Al Ali is a 27-year-old health care and personal support worker. Throughout the pandemic, she worked on the Covid-19 frontlines, caring for the elderly. Some patients may owe their lives to her. Al Ali was in her ninth month of pregnancy when she got a government-issued “invitation” to reassess her residency status in Denmark.

As the first European nation to revoke the residency permits of Syrian refugees, the Danish Immigration Minister Mattios Tesfaye insists that some parts of the war-torn country of Syria are “safe”. But Syria is still controlled by the same regime that is known to have detained, tortured and “disappeared” over 100,000 Syrians since 2011. If people refuse to return, they can be sent to detention centres such as Kaershovedgaard. They can be separated from family, unable to work, unable to continue schooling or to continue learning Danish.

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As well as stripping Syrians of their residency permits, the Danish government also offered around $30,000 for “voluntary” returnees to Syria. In 2020, just 137 refugees took up the offer. It wasn’t for Ali. Denmark is her home, where she has a loving partner, and where she has cared for Denmark’s vulnerable ill and elderly people.

Rewarding pandemic contributions

Contrast Denmark’s response with that of Canada. When Covid-19 hit, refugees joined the front-line response, working in hospitals and care homes, saving the lives of Canadians. Canada’s Ministry of Immigration created a special “fast track” pathway for those refugees to become permanent citizens. Marco Mendicino, Canada’s Minister of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship, officially recognised “the extraordinary contribution of asylum claimants working in Canada’s health-care sector during the Covid-19 pandemic...the current services merit exceptional measures in recognition of their service during the pandemic...”

In response to refugees on the front line, saving the lives of Canadians, Canada’s Ministry of Immigration created a special Fast Track Pathway for those refugees to become citizens.

But Al Ali — who’s been called on to attend more sessions on how to go back to Syria than she has about assimilating — represents thousands of other refugees who have been targeted at a time when their services are especially needed. After being on the frontlines to help keep Danes safe, Denmark is turning its back on Al Ali.

The solution for refugees is not to exclude them and turn them away. It’s to make them partners.

Refugees like Al Ali have shown that they are a benefit to their new societies. But for refugees to make this contribution, they need to be included and involved in the making of policies that affect their lives.

The Danish context

This response also comes in stark contrast with the proud history of Danes protecting those facing persecution. Jamal Mansour, a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto, recently shared that “Denmark’s stance in 2021 could not be a greater contrast to its position in 1943, a year when Danes, ordinary people, were heroes of that era”. In 1943, Berlin decreed it was time to cleanse Denmark of its Jews. In response, ordinary Danes pulled off a “spectacular feat,” rescuing 90% of the city’s Jews from the Nazi Gestapo. Danes provided food, communications, hiding places, and escape. There were many treacherous nighttime voyages in tiny fishing boats. Many Danes risked their lives to rescue people otherwise destined for extermination camps, and they did so without seeking recognition for their courage and compassion.

Following World War Two, the right to seek asylum became entrenched in international law. Today, the UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, warns that there are more forcibly displaced in the world today than at any time since World War Two. Despite this, governments are turning their backs on refugees — even refugees like Al Ali who have shown how she can contribute to her new country.

The solution for refugees is not to exclude them and turn them away. It's to make them partners. Refugees like Al Ali have shown that they are a benefit to their new societies. But for refugees to make this contribution, they need to be included and involved in the making of policies that affect their lives.

What’s happening in Denmark is an atrocity. It must be stopped, and cannot be allowed to spread and become as contagious as the deadly virus refugees themselves have been risking their lives to help contain. — Mustafa Alio

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