Category: Campaign

Recognizing the evil! The Afghan Dilemma

An American soldier in 2019 at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan. Credit: Erin Schaff/The New York Times

August 15, 2021, is one of those days which reveals the intentions of the US and West for the world. The fall of Kabul was inevitable as the US and Western forces have never intended to empower the people of Afghanistan, flourishing democracy, or depend on women’s rights rather the then mighty and irate US administration wanted revenge and a place in central Asia. In an interview on July 27, 2022, Hashmat Ghani, told a journalist that the fall of Kabul was decided way before August 15, 2021. It was decided on February 29. 2020 when the US officially signed the Doha deal with the Taliban. Sarah Chayes, a writer and former journalist who worked as a special adviser to the US military leadership in Afghanistan has put it clear that the US and the West from the beginning, had no plans of nation-building but rather quite the opposite. This was also evident from President Biden’s speech after the fall of Kabul where he said that The US was never there in Afghanistan for nation-building.

Read More: Biden ‘We did not go to Afghanistan to nation build’ 

Speaking to Martin Sandbu at Rachman review, Sarah Chayes, recalled the beginning of the fall of the Taliban when she was driving with one of the warlords. She said that one of the warlords heavily equipped with US military equipment fighting the Taliban told me that “why are we in this? It should not be about us “the warlords” but rather about the people of Afghanistan. This is what was found in the investigative report of the US congress in 2010 named “Warlords Inc“. The report states that over 2 billion dollars worth of contracts indirectly funded warlords.

Read more: Warlord, Inc. Extortion and Corruption Along the U.S. Supply Chain in Afghanistan

The early morning of July 2, 2021, saw hundreds of US soldiers leave the Bagram Airbase Kabul overnight without informing the Afghan authorities. The electricity was shut down during their departure and the base was sunk into darkness. During the same time, the Western media outlets were already propagating the Taliban’s wins over the southern districts of Afghanistan. This sent a clear message to the Afghan government that they must pave way for the Taliban. It also demoralized the Afghan army. The Afghan govt had a choice to either fight, fulfilling the US desire to continue fighting on their own so the burden of failure does not fall onto the US, or surrender and save thousands of lives. Either way, Kabul was planned to fall to the Taliban as agreed by The US and Taliban Doha deal.

Related link: The US left Bagram Airbase overnight

On the other side, despite Pakistan being the founder and strong supporter of the Taliban all these years, The US and the West considered her a strategic partner and to this day consider her as one. Within Afghanistan, The US and the West never let the elected official do their work autonomously. In the December 2021 interview, President Ashraf Ghani told the former chief of the British Defense Staff, General Nick Carter that he was not even allowed to change the Kandahar police chief, let alone run the country. President Ghani criticized Washington for leaving his government out of years of peace talks with the Taliban. Anand Gopal an American writer and journalist wrote the story of an Afghan woman in the article The Other Afghan Women. The woman has seen the last forty years of war with her own eyes. The woman recalled every moment of her life and saw the coalition forces killing innocent people while funding the warlords. Anand Gopal has also written the book “No Good Men Among the Living” where he wrote that the coalition forces clashed among themselves in Helmand province for various contracts and civilian deaths. US forces were funding one warlord to fight the other and this went on until they handover the country to the Taliban.  

Read more: The Other Afghan Women

Over the past two decades of the invasion of Afghanistan, the US and the West not only surrendered the sovereignty of Afghanistan to the Taliban but made them more powerful than ever. The group now owns weapons that many sovereign countries do not have. Afghans are now at the mercy of the Taliban and Pakistan Intelligence agencies personnel are all over the country.

Illustration of a US-made military vehicle in Afghanistan. (Wikimedia Commons/MSgt Benjamin Bloker)

The people of Afghanistan not only rejected The US Doha agreement and Pakistan’s support of the Taliban but protested the advancement of the Taliban and their media coverage by western media outlets during the last month before the fall of Kabul. The Afghan Diaspora protested outside US and Pakistan embassies throughout the world over their Doha agreement and support of the Taliban. At every such rally, one slogan was common, the US and the West are responsible for the destruction of Afghanistan, The US and the West replaced the Taliban with Taliban and they should be brought to justice for bringing back the terrorists to Afghanistan.

In January 2022, when the Norwegian Govt with consent from the US and allies called the Taliban leadership to Oslo for talks, it reaffirmed to every Afghan that the US and West are not interested in a sovereign and terror-free Afghanistan but rather going after their strategic interests.

The Afghan Dilemma

If nothing else, the Doha agreement between The USA and the Taliban should be an eye opener to every Afghan that the US and West imperialists forces are not on the side of human rights, nation building, sovereignty, democracy, or women’s rights but instead, they go after their own strategic interests.

The millions of Afghans worldwide protesting US involvement in bringing back the Taliban show that the people of Afghanistan know the US and West guilt. But the dilemma is that some neo-liberal Afghans in the West are still behind the same war supporting forces of the US and West who handed over the country to the Taliban through a properly signed agreement.

The US and West play around Afghans while both Taliban and neo-liberal Afghans continue to undermine the sovereignty of Afghanistan. Photo From Mike Pompeo and Ali Maisam Nazary Twitter

It is staggering that some Afghan ex-government officials along with the neo-liberal Afghans in the west are meeting with the conservatives, liberals, and Social-neo-liberal political leaders and NATO officials for support against the Taliban even though it was the same West that brought the Taliban to power just a few months ago. Some of the activists arrange meetings in the EU parliament to get support to oust the Taliban knowing that the same EU is inviting the Taliban for talks to various forums like Antalya Diplomacy Forum and Oslo conference on Afghanistan. The US Special Representative to Afghanistan Thomas West has met Afghan Taliban leaders at various forums including at Antalya Diplomacy Forum. Thomas West has met Taliban leaders as recently as June 30 this year in Doha along the US State department personnel. They discussed the political and economic situation in Afghanistan and released 55 million dollars in aid apart from 774 million dollars aid since the Taliban took over Afghanistan last year. The neo-liberal Afghans in the West on the other hand are meeting the same Western officials to get support against the Taliban.

Read more: Afghanistan, Qatar, US hold trilateral meeting in Turkiye’s Antalya

US Representative to Afghanistan Thomas West meeting Taliban leaders in Antalya Turkey. Photo Source MOFA

Way forward

No nation in human history has built itself over the support of colonizers and imperialists. Nations are never built by funded NGOs but instead by mass movements and public mobilization. Some of the Afghan social activists still believe that arranging a seminar in the European parliament or meeting with US officials will change the fate of Afghans while ignoring the fact that the same officials were there in Afghanistan for 20 years, killings thousands of innocent people just to replace the Taliban with Taliban.

Afghanistan’s way forward is only to believe in the power of the people of Afghanistan. Afghans need to mobilize fellow Afghans and organize themselves on political lines. The West´s NGO culture has left Afghan movements to conference halls and online meetings which must be abandoned to achieve the dream of a sovereign Afghanistan. US Senator Richard Black once rightly said that the NGOs US and West fund around the world are actually the goodwill ambassadors of US imperialism, and they promote the soft image of the US.

Millions of Afghan diaspora can make a real difference only if they join the anti-war movements. The neo-liberal and war-supporting political parties in the west will only further the devastation of Afghanistan. Afghans need to distance themselves from the neo-liberal pro-war imperialist forces of the US and West who believe in war and escalation of militancy. Afghans must believe in peaceful resistance. Non-violent resistance will take time to bring about the development that Afghanistan needs, but it will end the vicious cycle of war in Afghanistan and shatter the US and West’s desire for another war in Afghanistan.

Naqeeb Khan is the President of Green Human Resources and can be contacted via email.

The adjusted Danish Citizenship rules! Bigotry continues and so do our struggle!

Comparison of Original Citizenship agreement 20th April, 2021 and updated one of 17th June 2021.

On 20th April, 2021, Social Democrats along with Venstre, Liberal Alliance and Conservative signed an agreement regarding obtaining Danish citizenship via naturalisation. The agreement entailed number of unfair, discriminatory and racist rules. Danish Green Card Association and Green Human Recourses have from day one criticised these rules and called upon all the parties and MPs to reconsider these rules as they are unreasonable and in fact a hurdle to a good integration of new Danes into Danish society.

Read more: Nye regler for statsborgerskab bliver ikke den sidste stramning

After a continuous and rigorous campaign and the June 2, 2021 demonstration, we managed to put pressure on parties to the agreement to alter the rules for good. As a result the ministry issued another circular agreed on June 11, 2021 with some amendments. The ministry also sent the details of the updated agreement and answers to our questions in a letter dated 22 June, 2021. Although there has been few achievement of our campaign but mostly the rules remain unchanged or even worse in some cases. We are also not satisfied with the answers we receive from the Ministry. We believe that these rules are unfair and unjustifiable. They will make it impossible for many to obtain Danish citizenship which we consider a basic human right of those who have been living in Denmark either since birth or for over 10 years. Some of the rules are no less than humiliating the immigrants and youth with the unreasonable demands. Therefore, our resistance will continue against these rules.

Read more: Cirkulæreskrivelse om naturalisation 17/06/2021

Udlændinge- og Integrationsministreriet svar på vores spørgsmål.

Following is the comparison of the main points of original and updated agreement on Danish citizenship dated 17 June 2021.

Guidelines20 April 2021 Original Agreement17 June 2021 Changes in the agreement
Employment Requirement– 3,5 years full time work in last 4 years. – Applied retroactively on all application submitted after 10th April, 2020.– 3,5 years full time work in last 4 years. – Applied from the date the agreement was signed 20th April, 2021.
Young Students– Automatically Exempt from work requirement if entered Denmark before they turn 15 and up to the age of 25.– They have to apply for dispensation from work requirement to the parliament Indigenous Rights Committee.
– Plus a prerequisite that one should have entered Denmark before the age of 8 and should apply for citizenship before one reaches the age of 22.
– Applied retroactively on all application submitted after 10th April, 2020.
Residence Requirement– 2 years of Permanent Residence (1 year for Refugees and stateless persons) – Applied retroactively from 10th April 2021– Remain same as before. – Plus have the opportunity to apply for dispensation to committee without any guaranteed positive outcome.
MENAP plus Turkey (Racial & Religious profiling)– Names of each applicant will be listed in separate headings considering their country of origin. Muslim majority countries (MENAP Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan plus Turkey) applicants names will be listed separately under MENAP plus Turkey heading. Paving way to discrimination and racism.– Remain same as before.  
Citizenship test– 5 more questions on Danish values making it 45 in total – 4 correct out of 5 new questions – 32 correct out of rest of 40 questions– Remain same as before.
Dispensation for applications submitted after 20 April 2020. Employment requirement– No dispensation.– Part time workers who have worked less than 30 hours a week or less than 120 hours a month – Persons who have taken more than 6 months unemployment allowance (Dagepenge) in last 4 years. – The opportunity of applying for dispensation does not mean a guaranteed dispensation.
Ban on obtaining Citizenship– Conditional or unconditional prison sentence– Remain same as before.
Comparison of Original Citizenship agreement and updated one

Danish Green Card Association and Green Human Resources are very much concerned over the above changes which will make life miserable for many in Denmark. The integration of these new Danes will be even harder and might results in stress and trauma to probable new Danes especially those who are born here in Denmark and who will be forced to leave education and start work in a bit to be eligible to apply for citizenship.

Read more: An open letter to Danish Immigration Minister Mattias Tesfaye; It will be a dictatorial directive to implement new citizenship laws on those who have already applied a year ago

Fair rules; Our Recommendations

The two organisation has already written to parties and MPs about the new citizenship rules and informed them about our recommendations which are as follow.

Employment requirement

An applicant of Danish citizenship already show full time work for up to 4 years while getting permanent residency. Thus requiring 3 and half years full time work in last 4 years for citizenship application is unnecessary and contribute to an unskilled labor force. It will only make the probable new Danes stagnant at the same career position as they will have to continue working in the same job without training and development which in many cases is only possible to either start studying full time or go for various courses which takes years. Employment requirement will also force women to either choose family or work as they have to first show 3,5 years work for permanent residency and then for citizenship application.

One of the reasons to abolish the work requirement is COVID-19. Thousands of people lost their jobs during this pandemic which has made it impossible to show 3 and half years full time work in last 4 years. Thus it will take years before many could meet this requirement.

Residence Requirement

Danish Green Card Association and Green Human Resources believe that residency requirement is utterly unreasonable. An applicant who has fulfilled all requirements including the residence requirement for Citizenship which is 9 years should not be told to spend 2 more years in Denmark before applying for citizenship. It negate the very basic rules of the citizenship itself as it will require an applicant to spend almost 11 years before applying for Danish citizenship instead of 9 years.

The residence requirement will specially hit hard the youth as despite living in Denmark since birth they will have to spend 2 more years after getting permanent residency at the age of 18. This is completely risking the confidence of youth and humiliating them with unreasonable demands in a country they already call home.

Young Students

Danish Green Card Association and Green Human Resources are categorically shattered over the work requirement for young people for obtaining Danish citizenship in the newly updated version of the agreement. It will definitely disturb and destroy future of many young people. They will have to focus starting full time work instead of their studies at the young age or wait until they turn 30 to get Danish citizenship.

We believe that the parties should restore the first guidelines regarding the work employment for young people which automatically exempted all those from work requirement who have entered Denmark before the age of 15 and up to 25 years of age. This will also reduce an extra burden of work for the Indigenous Right Committee of parliament, immigration ministry staff and give a sense of confidence to youth that they are part of the society and we value them instead of demanding unreasonable and unjustified requirements.

MENAP plus Turkey

The new agreement includes among other things the separation of Danish citizenship applicants into headings based on their national background. Muslim majority countries applicants will be grouped under the name of MENAP plus Turkey (Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan plus Turkey) and similarly non-western countries which might include South Asian, South American and other countries and the western countries applicants will be under these headings respectively. This will actually pave way for more racial and religious discrimination in near future. We believe that such lists violates the very basics of Danish values of freedom of religion and contradicts the UN human rights conventions.

Education counted as full time work

The new guidelines states that education will not be counted as full time work with some exemption for young people. We have long campaigned to count education as full time work for permanent residency applications while the current agreement is not even recognising education as full time work for citizenship applications. We believe this is forcefully creating a pool of uneducated and unskilled labour in Denmark. We believe that education should be an alternative to work for citizenship applications with no limits of age because the higher immigrants get education the more will it contribute to Danish society and economy.

Dagpenge (A-kasse) and Supplementary Dagpenge should be counted as full work

We recommend to consider dagepenge (A-kasse) and supplementary dagpenge as an applicable source of regular full time work. It is because dagepenge itself require a person to fulfil certain requirement which include full time work in last 1 year. This will help the probable new Danes to not only continue their development by taking various courses and university degrees but it will also help various employment Union firms to have higher subscriptions. It will also add a more skilled labor force into Danish labor market.

Danish Green Card Association and Green Human Resources will continue a fair struggle against these new unreasonable and unjust citizenship rules. We have a planned meeting with the Indigenous Right Committee of parliament where we will propose the above amendments and recommendations to make the rules more fair and justifiable.

  • Naqeeb Khan is a research graduate of the University of Glasgow, Scotland and resides in Denmark. He is president of Green Human Resources and an executive member with the Danish Green Card Association (DGCA). He can be contacted via email.

    • Nawaz Lost job due to corona last year! Now he will get a 3rd rejection letter from Danish immigration due to new work requirement for citizenship applied retroactively

    Studies have found that Denmark immigrations laws change on average every 3 months in last 15 years. Nawaz Ahmed and his family are one who has been victim every time.

    Denmark has now for years been one of the most strict countries for highly skilled professionals and immigrants due to its ever changing and tough immigration policies. According to a 2017 Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science assessment, 80 percent of foreign graduates from Danish universities leave Denmark within two years of their graduation. There are some who stay and challenge the system. They include spouses of Danes, green card holders and researchers. Despite meeting all requirements they face the ever changing rules. The recent study by a law professor at Aarhus University found that Denmark’s immigration laws have changed 68 times in last 15 years. This translates to a change in immigration laws every three months. These changes are then applied retroactively which means that applicants are told about the change in the rules after they submit their application .

    Read more: Regler for statsborgerskab strammes med 13 måneders tilbagevirkende kraft

    Ahmed Nawaz (fictitious name) has a similar story. Nawaz is a software engineer. He came to Sweden in 2007 where he completed his Master degree in Software engineering in 2009. Those were the beginning years when Denmark had announced green card scheme. He easily got his Danish green card in 2010 and came to Denmark in 2011. When I came to Denmark, I had a plan says Ahmed. I planned to first make some savings and start a family life here in Denmark and invite my spouse and kids. At the same I also planned to focus on learning Danish language. Everything was going smoothly until immigrations laws start changing constantly. I got trapped in these laws changes and their retroactive implementation, says Nawaz. If I got rejected this time for my citizenship application it will be my third time getting rejection letter due to changes in rules with retroactive effects.

    The June 2015 Danish general elections resulted in a overwhelming victory for far right parties and a large number of seats were won by right wing Danish People Party (Danske Folkeparti DF) for the first time in history. This promptly turn into tightening of immigration rules as DF came with one and only agenda to tighten the immigration laws. Little did Nawaz knew that these general elections and the far right victory will make his life miserable in the coming years.

    Rejection of Permanent Residency application in 2015

    After living 5 years in Denmark and meeting all requirements, I applied for permanent residency on December 15, 2015 and paid a fee of DKK 5400 says Nawaz. I was focused on my job and family life. I thought I will receive permanent residency permit in few months after which I will not be worried about visa extension and kicking out of Denmark after losing job. But the troubles were about to start says Nawaz.

    At the end of January, 2016 bill L87 was passed from the parliament which tighten the permanent residency rules. These rules made it compulsory for applicants to have lived for 6 years before they can be eligible to apply for permanent residency. It was 5 year of stay before this bill was passed. Though the bill was passed on January 26, 2016 but it was retroactively applied on all applications submitted after 10th of December 2015, the date when the bill was presented in the parliament for the first time. This covered Nawaz application and after few weeks he received a rejection letter from immigration office stating that his stay in Denmark has not been 6 years therefore, his permanent residency application is rejected. I felt betrayed as my application was not only turned down due to retroactive enforcement of rules but also I did not get back my DKK 5400 which I paid for my application, Nawaz says. I continued my life and thought to apply in one year for permanent residency.

    Residency requirement raised to 8 years in 2017

    In March 2017, once again a new bill L154 was presented to the parliament to tighten the permanent residency requirements. These new rules raised the residency requirements from 6 years to 8 years. When I was about to apply for permanent residency again in March 2017, I was again told that now the residency requirement has raised to 8 years so I have to wait for another 2 years before I can be eligible to apply. This was another shock for me says Nawaz. As my kids were going to schools and they felt integrated in Denmark so I again committed myself to continue my life and apply for permanent residency in 2 years for the sake of a better and certain future of my kids.

    Read More: Denmark is locking every door to immigrants

    Rejection of Permanent Residency application in 2018

    The residency requirement for permanent residency are counted from the time of ones CPR registration in Denmark or from the time of ones first visa application submission date in case one has submitted application in side Denmark. As Nawaz submitted his first green card application in Denmark in October 2010 so his residency years should have been counted from then. But he got rejection of his 2nd Permanent residency application in early 2019. The reason immigration office has stated is that he had stayed longer out side of Denmark in the beginning which has reduced his number of years of stay in Denmark. This time again he paid a fee of over DKK 6000 but did not get a refund after rejection.

    Permanent Residency in 2019

    After getting his second rejection letter for his permanent residency application, he then again applied in 2019 and got his permanent residency in October 2019 after 8 and half years of stay in Denmark. Nawaz says, I finally made it to permanent residency despite a long process and number of rejections due to changing rules and their retroactive implementation.

    Citizenship Application in 2020

    In June 2020, Ahmed submitted his Danish citizenship application after meeting every requirement and residing in Denmark for over 9 years. He lost his job due to corona lockdown in March 2020. Due to extended corona lockdown he could not find a job so he started a web development course at Next Copenhagen to enhance his knowledge and increase his career opportunities. He is still few months into completing the course and he is hopeful to start a new job soon.

    Read more: Denmark’s new citizenship requirements are discriminatory and racist

    New citizenship rules and their retroactive implementation.

    When the Danish Social Democrats took over the office in 2019, it was thought, it might be the beginning of a normal life but it started to get even worse. On April 20, 2021, Minister of Immigration and Integration Mattias Tesfaye along with Venstre, Liberal Alliance and Conservative party spokespersons through a press conference, announced new and tighten citizenship laws. Human Rights organisations and experts called them unreasonable, discriminatory and racists. Among other new requirements, three and half years full time work in last four years is one. The worse part is again the retroactive implementation of these new rules on all applications submitted after 10th April, 2020.

    Read more: Institut for Menneskerettigheder: Statsborgerskabsregler strider mod retsstatsprincipper

    Probable rejection of Citizenship application in 2021

    The new citizenship rules include employment requirement. It is due to this requirement and its retroactive implementation that Nawaz thinks he will get another rejection letter from Danish immigration. I am devastated to hear about these new rules and their retroactive implementations, says Nawaz. It is like running on a treadmill which never ends anywhere. I am still studying web development course after which I will probably get a job and then I have to work 3 and half years to be eligible to apply for citizenship. This means that I will probably get Danish citizenship in 2026 instead of 2022 that also if I did not get sick or do not lose my job again or rules are not changed again says Nawaz.

    Read more: ‘Dictatorial to impose new citizenship laws on those who have already applied’

    Nawaz is living with his wife and two children at the outskirt of Copenhagen. His kids are now going to school. Elder is in 8th standard while the younger is in 6th. Nawaz says, I am not only worried about my future in Denmark but my kids. Though they are well integrated but I am afraid, what has been happening to me over the last one decade might happen to my children one day. This makes me feel scare about my children’s future.

    Nawaz along hundreds of others who are in similar situation after the new citizenship rules are announced, believe that a fair and moral way of implementing these rules especially the employment requirement would be to apply the new rules 3 years from now i.e. from 10th May 2024 rather applying retroactively from 10th April, 2020. This will allow everyone to fulfil the requirements mentioned in the ministry circular. It will save Nawaz from getting his 3rd rejection letter from Danish immigration due to changes in rules and their retroactive implementation despite meeting all requirements when submitting application.

    • Naqeeb Khan is a research graduate of the University of Glasgow, Scotland and resides in Denmark. He is president of Green Human Resources and an executive member with the Danish Green Card Association (DGCA). He can be contacted via email.

    An open letter to Danish Immigration Minister Mattias Tesfaye; It will be a dictatorial directive to implement new citizenship laws on those who have already applied a year ago

    Minister of Immigration and Integration Mattias Tesfaye (S) expects that fewer people will get citizenship after a new agreement tightens access to Danish citizenship. Photo: Emil Helms / Ritzau Scanpix

    Dear Mattias Tesfaye,

    Every human being has the right to a fair and free chance to survive and grow. These rights are not only guaranteed in the Danish constitution but recognised by UN Human Rights Conventions and EU directives. Over the last few years various Danish governments has been breaching the equal opportunity rights of immigrants thus violating the fundamentals of Danish values and its constitution.

    The constant implementation of laws retroactively and asking immigrants to meet the requirements in an earlier time in the past makes it more like a dictatorial directives rather any democratic norm. Unfortunately your signed circular CIS nr 9298 af 06/05/2021 dated 6th May 2021 regarding new Danish citizenship rules are also violating the basics of UN human rights conventions, EU directives and the Danish democratic norms. It proposes to implement the new Danish citizenship law on all those who have applied after 10 April 2020 which is 13 months prior to the date of agreement over on the law.

    Read more: Circular letter on Danish Naturalisation

    Though, I consider the new proposed rules illogical, discriminatory and unfair but its implementation on the already submitted applications make it unjustified and probably illegal. It violates the basic right of a person to have a fair chance to meet the set requirements. I recommend following points to be reconsidered in the new proposed and circulated rules and urge to change its implementation plan.

    • Residency Requirement:

    I believe that the residency requirement for citizenship applicants is unjustified. The current residency requirement for citizenship is already one of the highest in Europe i.e. 9 years but this new residency requirement will make it over 11 years. It is because the new residency requirements ask applicants to hold Permanent residency for at least 2 years before the citizenship application is processed and it takes almost 9 years to obtain permanent residency in Denmark. This requirement will also make hurdles for young people who are born and raised here as they will also need to wait for 2 years after getting Permanent residency when they turn 18.

    • Work Requirement:

    Majority of the immigrants are working full time but many of them also leave jobs for a while to join various professional courses and/or university degrees to strengthen their skills and knowledge especially after getting Permanent Residency. During this period they either take dagepenge (A-kasse, an allowance through a paid Union), supplementary dagepenge (working part time while taking part of the dagepenge A-kasse) or use their savings for a time being for their brighter future. The work requirement will force many to remain stagnant at one position without any training and development as they will need to show full time work for citizenship application. It will also in near future force many to stop their dagepenge (A-kasse) subscriptions as it will be of no use if one cannot avail for at least first 10 years of their stay in Denmark. It will surely have adverse impact on the economy of many employment Union firms. This requirement will also force many to leave their university education or never start one rather keep working unskilled jobs or remain in the same position which will ultimately impact Danish labor market.

    i). COVID-19: Imposing Work requirement at a time when thousands of people have lost their jobs due to COVID-19 will make it impossible for many to fulfil this requirement. During 2020 many people lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 economic lockdown so requiring immigrants to show full time work for last 3 and half years during this pandemic will be unfair. 

    • Implementation of the rules:

    The shocking part of these new rules is the implementation date. You have announced that these new rules will be applied retroactively from April 10, 2020. It is almost 13 months prior to the agreement between the parties on new citizenship rules. It might make the new rules illegal as the court review might declare it illegal to apply rules on those who have already submitted their application a year ago after fulfilling all the requirements of the time.

    Read more: OPINION: Denmark’s new citizenship requirements are discriminatory and racist

    Recommendations

    Considering Denmark a democratic country, I would like to recommend the following more logical and fair alternatives for the above mentioned concerns.

    1. I urge that residency requirements of holding Permanent residency for 2 years before the process of citizenship application is unnecessary. I would recommend to drop this requirement as it only contribute to further hurdles in the integration of immigrants as they will be unnecessarily delayed from getting Danish citizenship which give them the right to vote and a sense of identity in the Danish society.
    2. I would urge the following recommendations for the work requirement clause of the new circulated rules.
      1. Firstly, I recommend to abolish the work requirement for citizenship applications. It is because an applicant of Danish citizenship has already shown full time work for up to 4 years while getting permanent residency. Thus requiring 3 and half years full time work in last 4 years for citizenship application is unnecessary and contribute to an unskilled labor force. It will only make the probable new Danes stagnant at the same position as they will have to continue working in the same job without training and development which in many cases is only possible to either start studying full time or go for various courses which takes years.
      2. One of the reasons to abolish the work requirement is COVID-19. Thousands of people lost their jobs during this pandemic which has made it impossible to show 3 and half years full time work in last 4 years. Thus it will take years before many could meet this requirement.
      3. In continuation to 2.a and 2.b, I would recommend to consider dagepenge (A-kasse) as an applicable source of regular full time work. It is because dagepenge itself require a person to fulfil certain requirement which include full time work in last 1 year. This will help the probable new Dane to not only continue their development by taking various courses and university degrees but it will also help various employment Union firms to have higher subscriptions. It will also add a more skilled labor force into Danish labor market.
    3. I believe that the implantation plan described in the 6th May 2021 ministry circular will make the new rules illegal as they are prescribed to be applied retroactively from 10th April, 2020. I believe that;
      1. If the government would like to give a fair chance to each applicant so it will apply the new rules 3 years from now i.e. from 10th May 2024. This will allow everyone to fulfil the requirements mentioned in the circular.
      2. If the government would like to be unfair but still in one way justifiable so it will apply the new rules from either 10th May 2021 or from 20th April 2021 on which date the agreement was signed between the parties.
      3. I believe if the government apply the new rules from 10th April 2020 which the circular has also mentioned, it might make it illegal as it probably violates various human rights laws including the Danish constitution.

    I believe that a more suitable way of implementation of new rules would be to apply from the date of signing the agreement which is 20th April, 2021. It will mean that all those who have already applied, their applications will be processed on the basis the old rules. This will also mean that ministry will not be responsible to pay back probably over a million Danish Krone as a return fee. It is because each applicant who has applied from 10th April 2020 has paid a fee of 3800 DKK and their are thousands who will be effected by these new set of rules and thus ministry will be responsible to pay back their fees.

    I would be pleased if you consider these recommendations and make changes to the new rules accordingly. I am open to any further discussion or meeting that be virtual or face to face regarding the new rules and my recommendations.

    I will be eager to read your response to my letter.

    Best Regards 

    Naqeeb Khan

    Naqeeb Khan is a research graduate of the University of Glasgow, Scotland and resides in Denmark. He is president of Green Human Resources and an executive member with the Danish Green Card Association (DGCA). He can be contacted via email.

    Anyone who needs to be fired should be Nemlig.com Director himself not a mere acting supervisor! May 1st Speech

    It’s time to stand United against the mistreatment and torture of workers here in Denmark and around the world. May 1 March organised by Revolutionary Socialists in Copenhagen Denmark. Photo: Hamid Khan

    May 1st Day speech at a demonstration called to show solidarity with workers.

    Ladies and gentlemen 

    Firstly, I would like to wish everyone a very happy and joyful Labor Day. I would also like to thank Revolutionary socialist for arranging the march and giving me the opportunity to bring forward the torture and violations of workers’ rights by Nemlig management.

    Today’s labor day March is at a time when we see an uprising of workers and oppressed nations around the world. Though it has always been the tactics of oppressors who have either built their ego over their wealth and/or military power to disperse workers and oppressed people, but they have always failed ultimately. 

    Today again workers have come forward in one or the other way to express their grievances especially in recent months in Denmark the brave Nemlig workers who have exposed the arrogant Nemlig CEO and senior management. 

    Read more: Nemlig.com tæller sekunder. De langsomme på lageret bliver fyret

    For the last few years I have been very close to Nemlig employees who have suffered a lot. I have been hearing their stories almost every week as how They’re tortured, mistreated and fired without any reason. I would like to draw your attention to the following facts which will let you know how deteriorating the situation is in Nemlig.com. I have only focused on warehouse workers not drivers or sub-contractors and here are some facts.

    1. Temporary Contracts (TKVs) 
    Temporary workers are hired on part time contracts with 15 hours per week. These workers and then pressed to work fast in a bit to get more hours and a permanent contract. These temporary workers work full time for months but they are not given permanent contracts and usually are fired with zero day notice. One girl has been fired after she worked for Nemlig for over 8 months and she said her performance was also in green that is how Nemlig has divided workers according to their performance in Green, Yellow and Red. She did cry in front of the supervisor but she was fired on spot with zero day notice.

    2. Breaks: On average each packer takes around 20,000 steps each day while they are packing and pushing around 50 kg trolly filled with products. Work normally starts at 6 am and the only and first break is at 10 am after 4 hour of running, picking products and packing them. During this time they have to maintain their high performance i.e. picking a product within 9-14 second. If anyone is required to visit the toilet or washroom their time does not stop. Many usually drop their visit to the toilet just to keep their performance which results in various psychological and medical problems for them.

    Read more: Nemlig.com-ansatte under ekstremt pres:Har ni sekunder til at finde en vare


    3. Military Managers and military like situation: Each of the senior operation managers is an ex-military officer who is especially hired to look after packers performance. Jonas Rolandsen the logistic director posted on his Facebook on 4th of April 2020 that he wants 2-3 army officers to look after the performance of employees. These military officers shout at employees and proudly say that we are hired because we don’t listen to others but just to give orders. There are Senior Managers, managers, supervisors, vice supervisors, performance managers and supervisors all looking after packers to make them run and pack. There are painkillers tablets with each supervisor who give to packers if they feel pain after an incident or just normally instead of telling them to go home and rest or to the doctor. One army officer sent an email to one of the employees that I have been working for 17 years in the army but never have been sick so why are you sick. That is how the situation is in Nemlig.

    The Logistic Director of Nemlig Jonas Rolandsen facebook post calling for former sergeants or senior sergeants for a performance team at Nemlig.com. Photo: 3F

    4. Performance Management Teams: There are separate performance measurement supervisors with their iPod who call employees after each round if their performance is slow. In case they keep working slow they are thereafter fired. These supervisors’ job is to be on the shoulders of packers to keep them running.

    5. Injuries at work: Injuries at work are mostly not recorded. The packers are told to either continue work or leave. In some severe cases employees are paid for their injuries while other incidents are ignored. Most of the employees have back pain especially packers at cool areas where temperature is 2-5 and at frost areas where temperature is -20.

    6. Covid-19: During this pandemic employees were told to continue their work despite having a positive COVID test. Last summer when the Corona crisis was at peak, one employee got positive and the next day he was at work because he was not feeling any symptoms. The packers protested and thereafter that employee was sent home.

    7. Firing employees: Each month a couple of employees are fired. Even if you have a guarantee of a month or three month notice in your contract, they will fire you if you ask them something or demand your basic right by blaming your behaviour. After these reports last week one vice supervisor was fired. I don’t blame the vice supervisor who just obeyed the orders. I would say if anybody is to be fired, it should be the Director himself or the Logistic Director who proudly calls for military officers for jobs at nemlig and looking after packers performance.

    Read more: Nemlig loses green smiley

    To sum up, I would say that this torture, misbehavior, psychological pressure and painful experience must stop. I would recommend,

    1.     Full time contract for any employee who has been working full time hours for three months.

    2.     Paid 15 minutes break for warehouse workers after every 2 hours.

    3.     All the military officers hired with an intention of making Nemlig warehouse their military barracks or those who are behaving like military officers should be fired and sent to their barracks or home.

    4.     Employees should be treated as human beings not machines. Performance measures should be realistic and they should not be overlooked and definitely not when they are going to the toilet.

    5.     Safety first must be observed. Any injury or about to be an injury must be recorded. Those injured whether on part time contract or full time contract should be compensated.

    6.     All the COVID-19 SOP guidelines by the authorities should be followed.

    7.     Firing employees without any reason just for their ego must stop. Firing supervisors just to calm down the current situation is not enough. If anyone has to be fired, that should be the Director himself or Jonas Rolandsen who calls for military officers to join Nemlig to measure performance.

    I would request the organizers of today’s march to include these points in today’s demonstration resolutions.

    Thank you wish everyone a happy Labor Day.

    Naqeeb Khan

    Denmark new tighten citizenship requirements are discriminatory and racist

    In June 2019, Mattias Tesfaye (Social Democrat) took over as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Integration from the former Liberal politician Inger Støjberg. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

    After four long years of Venstre and far right parties government (2015-2019), Danes thought it would be a breathe of fresh air after the Danish Social Democrats took over the office in 2019 but it gets even worse. From introducing new tough immigrations laws to striping Syrian refugees residency permits and now these new strict and discriminatory measures in the form of the new agreement regarding Danish citizenship makes Social Democrats even worse. Some experts and politicians have called Danish Social Democrats as the new right wing populist party.

    Already Denmark has one of the tightest immigration laws in the world but with these new measures it might become the most discriminatory and racists. The new agreement proposes tightening of the rules in the following areas where some points are specifically proposed to target groups like Muslims and non-western immigrants.

    Read more: Ministry press release and new agreement on tightening the Danish citizenship requirements.

    Racial discrimination: Muslim and non-western countries applicants

    The new controversial agreement includes among other things the separation of danish citizenship applicants into muslims countries named as MENAP (Middle East, North Africa, Pakistan plus Turkey), non-western countries which might include South Asian, South American and other countries and the western countries applicants. As the Danish citizenship applicants names are tabled in the parliament after over a year of scrutiny for voting, the names are currently arranged alphabetically. The new agreement proposes to separate applicants on the basis of their original nationality. Although this thought was first coined by the extreme far right party The New Right but despite their absence in this collaboration, their idea is actualised. The reason behind this idea is to probably vote separately on each bill and reject muslim applicants list in the parliament. This will be even contrary to the Danish constitution.

    Read more: Partier vil tildele statsborgerskab på en ny måde

    Residency Requirement might become 11 years

    Denmark current rules dictate that one has to have lived 9 years before one can be eligible to apply for Danish Citizenship. Although this rule is not changed but as one of the pre-requisite of applying for Danish citizenship is to have permanent residency which can be availed after almost 9 years of residence. The new agreements states that one has to have Permanent residency for 2 years before one can be eligible to apply for citizenship. As obtaining permanent residency permit itself takes almost 9 years so the citizenship residency requirement will automatically reach 11 years. This will make Denmark the only European country to set this highest residency requirement.

    Employment Requirement

    The new agreement proposes an employment requirement for to be Danish nationals. The parties have agreed to set a 3 and half years full time work requirement in last 4 years before one can be eligible to apply for Danish Citizenship. This will be one of the most illogical and problematic requirement especially for young applicants. It will compel young students to leave their education and work full time for 3 and half years in last 4 years before they can be eligible to apply for Danish citizenship. This requirement will also force young people born and raised in Denmark, studied in Danish school and been an active part of Danish society, to leave their studies after they turn 18 and start full time work. Else, they will have to wait for at least 5 years as first they to finish their education and then work full time for at least 3 and half years. It will only make the young people suffer who have already been part of the Danish society since their birth.

    New Citizenship Test

    The current test contains a total of 40 questions covering Danish history from 7th century to date, politics, economics, societal values and norms, culture, lifestyle and current affairs. The new agreement had proposed to add 5 more questions on Danish values. These 5 questions will be about freedom of expression, equality and especially about religion. The agreement has emphasised that to pass the test one has to get 4 correct out of these 5 questions. The critics argue that these questions are specifically agreed to target muslims and ask questions as to choose either Islam or Danish values. In case this become a reality, it will also violate the Danish constitution which guarantee freedom of speech and religion.

    Citizenship Interview

    The four parties agreement include the introduction of Citizenship interview. This will be the first of its kind in Denmark history. The parties agreed upon preparing a statement within a year as to how to conduct citizenship interviews. The idea behind the citizenship interview is again to assess individual applicants as how far one has adopted Danish values contrary to their religious believes. It was also first brought by far right party to target muslims applicants as to judge them on their religious believes. It will at least take a year more before citizenship interviews will be actually introduced if the agreement becomes a bill and pass from parliament.

    Read more: Integration handler ikke om at bygge bro, siger Venstre

    Prison sentence strips an applicant from Danish Citizenship for ever

    The new agreement will make it impossible for those who has be sentenced to prison that might be conditional or unconditional and even for a day. The right groups argue that this will take the chance of a better life from a person who has once committed a crime but later got education and contribute to society in a better way. This will also violate the Universal Human Rights Conventions. Critics argue that with this requirement Denmark will go back 100 years as back in 1915, Denmark gave the right to vote to prisoners and now it is taking even the citizenship rights from former prisoners.

    Read more: Denmark announces new tightening of citizenship rules

    The new agreement has shown leniency at one place where they have agreed to allow South Schleswig residence to become Danish citizen if their children has been attending Danish schools in South Schleswig, Germany. But the agreement also has been discriminatory here as it has used the word Danish-minded residence only. It means that if a Turk or other muslim residence of South Schleswig wishes to apply for Danish citizenship even after fulfilling all the requirement, they would be rejected as they would be labelled as non Danish-minded residence.

    Despite the left Block (Red Block) leading party, Social Democrats went on to the right wing blue block parties like Venstre, Conservative and Liberal Alliance to sign an agreement on tightening the citizenship laws leaving behind the support parties. This shows how desperate Social democrat party is to attract the right wing voters especially for the upcoming municipal elections in November. All the three support parties to the Social Democrat government i.e. Enhedslisten, Radikale Venstre and Socialist Peoples Party have shown their discontent to the agreement. They have called the agreement an illogical, discriminatory and shameful.

    Read more: Eksperter: Ny aftale om statsborgerskab er ’stærkt bekymrende’

    Although the parties to the agreement make it a clear majority to pass the probable bill but if the support parties to Social democrats take firm stand on the issue so it might not get though. In case the support parties threaten Social democrats with no confidence vote which will result in dismissal of the current government and ultimately an end to the agreement at least for a while. Are the support parties ready to take the big step and turn over the Social democrat government? It will only be a matter of time before we know.

    Naqeeb Khan is a research graduate of the University of Glasgow, Scotland and resides in Denmark. He is president of Green Human Resources and an executive member with the Danish Green Card Association (DGCA). He can be contacted via email.

    Why Danish Parliament should consider Education as Full Time Job as part of the new bill?

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is screen-shot-2020-11-30-at-01.19.26.png
    Chrissy Patton is a graduate of Aalborg University, Denmark.

    According to the Ministry of Higher Education and Science Denmark, 80% of the foreign graduates from Danish universities leave Denmark after two years of their graduation. It is probably because of the uncertainty around settling down in Denmark. One of the recent studies of Aarhus University Professor found that immigration rules in Denmark are changed after every 3 months . Frequent changes and constantly tightening the requirements for permanent residency create a basic sense of uncertainty and lack of predictability. It not only makes it difficult to live a normal life but people who think they are on the right track towards getting permanent residency find that they face yet another new set of requirements.

    Read more: Denmark concerned about the high proportion of foreign students who leave after graduation

    In the pre-2016 scenario, education was counted as full time work. International students, reunified spouses of Danes and their children were eligible to apply for Permanent Residency by showing that either they have been working or studying in Denmark. But the laws were changed in 2016. Education was thereafter, no more counted as full time work. Thus International students, reunified spouses and their children would either leave the country or stop studying and have to take unskilled jobs to fulfil employment requirement before they can apply for permanent residency.

    Here is how immigration laws have been effecting these groups and adversely effecting Denmark and the integration of these new Danes.

    International Students

    The elimination of education has directly affected international students. An international student roughly pays a fee of 80,000 per year to a Danish University. Apart from that, a student works up to 80 hours a month and pay taxes. Chrissy Patton, an American student in Denmark who graduated from Aalborg University in January 2020, is now on an establishment card. Although I’ve graduated with my Master’s degree from a Danish university, have lived here for the last five years, passed the Danish language exam PD3 and have a full time job, I still won’t qualify for permanent residency anytime soon as I have to work full time for a minimum of 3.5 years before I can be eligible to even apply, says Chrissy Patton.

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    Chrissy Patton during her graduation at Aalborg University, Denmark.

    I will likely have to rely on the pay limit scheme in order to meet the 3.5 year requirement, but that means I should have a permanent job contract with a salary of more than 436.000 DKK a year (and this amount increases every year) which is extremely difficult for a new graduate, adds Chrissy Patton. International students in such cases decide to leave Denmark despite they are well integrated, highly qualified, have full time job just because they could not extend their stay by not showing few more thousands krones of income a year. If education is counted as full time work they could not only stay in Denmark but also get permanent residency and focus on their career which ultimately contribute to the Danish society and economy.

    Reunified Spouses

    Thousands of Danes are married to individuals from out side of EU. They join their spouses after fulfilling number of requirements of the strict and controversial family reunification laws. Thereafter, these spouses have to fulfil individually all the requirements to get permanent residency. They have to either work full time for 3,5 continuous years after graduation which means a wait of 8 years after coming to the country (that also if they get full time job and work without any break during these years) or leave studying and start unskilled odd job. When they leave education it not only stop their personal growth but also Denmark ends up with unskilled labour force. Another International student of Architectural Technology, graduate of KEA Denmark, Katie Larsen came to Denmark in 2015 from the States. She is now married to a Dane. She has represented Denmark at Dutch Design Week 2019, with a project rooted in Danish history and culture, at a conference for the world’s best design graduates. She could not apply for permanent residency as education is not counted as full time work so she applied for family reunification.

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    Katie Larsen while presenting her seaweed project at KEA Denmark

    Katie lost her job after the corona crisis and thereafter, have to leave Denmark with her Dane husband to study in The Netherlands and come back after few years under EU laws. I was two months away from completing my mandatory integration contract with Slagelse Kommune, a contract that required me to work for at least a year to prove my “self-sufficiency”. But then I lost my job due to corona crisis and my any hope of applying for permanent residence in the next 4 years has also been ruined says Katie. In case education was counted as full time work just like before 2016, I would have gotten permanent residency by now. I decided to leave Denmark to take a masters degree in the Netherlands and come back under EU laws. This would take almost the exact same amount of years as if you stay in Denmark to get a masters degree. The big difference is if you stay in Denmark, and lose your job for more than 6 months, you start over again and have to wait another 4 years. So it punishes you to stay in Denmark even if you are contributing says Katie.

    Reunified Young Children

    The children of reunified international workers is another group of people who suffer because of the strict permanent residency laws. When a child of foreign worker join their family at the age of lets say 14 and their parents could not get permanent residency while they are under 18, then these youngsters have to fulfil all the permanent residency requirements by their own. They either have to leave their education to get permanent residency in next 4 years or wait for another 8 to 10 years before they can get permanent residency. Their life is totally uncertain before they have gotten permanent residency.

    Maya Young, who came to Denmark when she was 14 under her father work visa. She is now 17 and studying at a folkeskole in Hundested. Her father will still not be eligible to apply for permanent residency permit by next year and she will turn 18. This means that after she turns 18, she will have to fulfil all the permanent residency requirements by her own.

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    Maya Young (middle) with her parents in Denmark

    Maya says, If education counts as full time work so I can apply for my permanent residency permit next year as I have been studying ever since I came to Denmark almost 3 years ago. This will bring calm in my life and I will be able to focus on my studies and career. Now she has to either leave education which she does not want or wait for another 8 to 10 years before she can complete her education and work full time for 3,5 continuous years to be eligible to apply for permanent residency. During these years her future in Denmark will totally be uncertain which will effect her studies and career.

    The current bill at the Danish parliament argue to include education as full time work. The bill is presented by Radikale Venstre party MPs and have support from Enhedslisten, Socialist Folkeparty SP, Alternativet and Frie Grønne.

    This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is screen-shot-2020-11-30-at-00.25.10.png
    The new bill (By Radikale Venstre) proposes that education should again be counted as full time employment.

    Danish politicians must consider these young highly qualified individuals lives before voting on this bill. Education if counted as full time work will only benefit Danish society and economy.

    Naqeeb Khan (left) and D. Valentino (right) with Danish MP Andreas Steenberg (Radikale Venstre) at the Danish Parliament after a meeting regarding education to be counted again as full time work.

    Written by: Naqeeb Khan