Denmark, Rwanga Foundation sign contract to facilitate asylum seekers return

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Danish government and a local NGO in the Kurdistan Region on Monday signed a contract to facilitate the return of asylum seekers whose applications to stay in Denmark have been rejected. 

Asylum seekers can register for the $1.5 million project through the Danish government, Iraq’s diplomatic mission in the country, or international organizations. 

“So far, it is Denmark, but there are other countries whose names we do not want to disclose yet. But we are close to signing contracts with them as well,” Abdulsalam Madani, CEO of Rwanga Foundation, told Rudaw. 

“It appears that the project will continue for the next five years. This [Denmark] contract is for three years until 2026,” he said. 

The returnees will be trained in three stages for a year, with 100 applicants designed to benefit from the rehabilitation project per year. 

After the training, half of the applicants could receive financial support ranging from $3,000 to $4,000. 

The Danish government will provide financial support. 

“Those cases have lost all legal grounds to stay there, and of course they are now looking for an opportunity, and their homeland is the country of their choice,” Lanja Shahab, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) Joint Crisis Coordination center told Rudaw. 

“We hope projects like this will be of help so that when the person returns home, they have support and there is an entity that helps them to earn their living,” Shahab added. 

Speaking to Rudaw last month, Peter Krogh Sorensen, Regional Migration Attache at the Danish Ministry of Immigration and Integration, said that the security situation in Iraq has improved and could be considered safe. 

Sorensen was explaining a Danish government program that seeks to support asylum seekers who had their cases rejected by European countries to come back and resettle in their host communities. The program covers the Kurdistan Region’s provinces of Erbil, Duhok, and Sulaimani as well as federal Iraq’s Nineveh, Baghdad, and Anbar and is implemented in cooperation with Rwanga Foundation. 

According to the United Nations, the return of asylum seekers must be voluntary and each country has to ensure that their country of origin is safe and secure.