If you commit a serious crime, it's time to move on, says Denmark's Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard (S) to TT.
Few in Sweden know him, but many more have probably come across the expression "Swedish child soldiers", which Hummelgaard coined in connection with the wave of young Swedes who travelled to Denmark to carry out "crime as a service".
Ahead of the Danish election, he is taking the lead in investigating the possibility of establishing a board to handle deportation cases resulting from serious crime instead of the country's courts.
Efficiency
According to Hummelgaard, it's about "streamlining" by separating the criminal process from the deportation decision.
What we can see is that many of those facing deportation delay the process and appeal, even though there is nothing to suggest the decision should be changed.
Jens Vedsted-Hansen, professor of law at Aarhus University, believes that it would bring legal certainty back to how it was before the Danish Aliens Act of 1983.
"Against that background, one should expect a well-thought-out and detailed justification for the proposal, and I have not seen any such thing so far," he writes in an email.
Criticism
The current center-right government in Denmark, which includes the Social Democrats, launched a deportation reform in January under which foreign residents sentenced to at least one year in prison will be deported regardless of their ties to Denmark.
The proposal has been criticized because it involves a balancing act under Article 8 of the European Convention: the seriousness of the crime committed must be weighed against the right to family and private life, in this case the person's connection to Denmark.
Wants reinterpretation
Hummelgaard rejects the criticism and says that he does not want to depart from the convention; instead, he is working towards a reinterpretation.
"We want to try to achieve more balance now that there has been such a one-sided interpretation of the convention in the courts," says Hummelgaard.
Last December, Denmark and Italy brought together 27 of the Council of Europe's 46 member states in a joint statement on the "need to change the interpretation" of the European Convention. The statement, which was supported by Sweden, among others, mentioned Article 8.
The collective right to live in a society free from crime and in safety must be taken into account as much as the right to privacy, says Hummelgaard.
