Press Release
The Danish Government's Special Law for Ukrainian
Refugees Exposes a Racist View on Muslims

The Danish government has proposed a special law regarding Ukrainian refugees, which will grant Ukrainians residence permits on an equal footing with EU citizens, even though Ukraine is not a member of the European Union. They will immediately have access to welfare services, work, and education.

The Jewellery Act, whereby the Danish government have confiscated personal belongings of refugees, the asylum ceiling, and all the other hard-line measures that have tarnished the international reputation of the Danish state, will not apply to the white and predominantly Christian Ukrainians.

All the while, refugees from Syria and other Muslim countries are treated without any dignity, housed in miserable asylum camps, deprived of personal property by law and deported back to war and persecution - Ukrainian refugees receive a golden free pass.

The arguments for this obvious contrast to the anti-human refugee policy pursued against refugees from Muslim countries are that Ukraine is in Denmark's "immediate area", which is why Denmark must "take responsibility".

Does the Danish state not have a greater responsibility for the refugees who are fleeing countries that Denmark has helped occupying and bombing for years?! The massive refugee influx from Afghanistan and Iraq that has lasted for over two decades are direct results of the Western invasions of these countries!

Prominent politicians have openly declared that the discriminatory treatment of Muslim refugees and Ukrainians, respectively, is because the Ukrainians are ethnically and culturally like the Danes. They are viewed as more "civilized", a term the West has used for over 300 years to define who is considered human and who is more like a beast.

As late as last month, the governing parties reached an agreement on a plan of action against racism. What was previously just a piece of symbolic political manipulation, now completely collapses as comical and worthless.

The government's position is clear: If you are a Ukrainian refugee, or a sympathizer who is willing to travel and fight to defend Ukraine, you are part of a heroic struggle for freedom. If, on the other hand, you are a Muslim who travels to fight a Western-backed despot like Assad, you are a potential terrorist and a so-called “foreign warrior”, who is a threat to the national security. The Danish state can strip the person of his passport without judgment or prosecution!

The first victim of the war in Ukraine has in many ways been the sad remnants of Europe's humane mask as well as the so-called value-based policy. The hypocrisy and racist view of people with Middle Eastern origin is clear to anyone who follows the recent developments. That which on the surface looks like help to a distressed people fleeing a war-torn country is, in fact, mostly a confirmation of the Danish political elite's cynical view of humanity, which has already unfolded for almost a decade with the inhuman refugee policies.

Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Denmark