U S State Department

Denmark 2016 Human Rights Report U S State Department

The main human rights problems concerned the treatment of irregular migrants from outside Europe. The law permits the government to seize migrants' jewelry and money upon entry into the country and restricts the ability of illegal migrants to appeal to the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) and other international human rights entities. Human rights observers reported that irregular migrants were subject to protracted detention, poor housing conditions, isolation in confinement, travel restrictions, and restrictions on employment. There were reported cases of physical abuse at the Naestved Asylum Center, abuse of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) migrants, and forced prostitution of migrant boys at Sandholm Asylum Center. Other problems included the occasional holding of detainees with convicts and children with adults, the excessive use of solitary and incommunicado detention, travel bans to certain countries, corruption in the awarding of government contracts, violence against women, child abuse, excessively long restraint of psychiatric patients, and discrimination against Muslims.