Denmark will accept quota refuges from the UN in 2024, continuing a policy of the governing Social Democrats since the party took office in 2019, and retained as part of the current coalition government.

The decision to accept quota refugees is the responsibility of Immigration Minister Kaare Dybvad Bek, who decides on the number and distribution of the refugees from the UN who are permitted to stay in Denmark.

In a statement, the Ministry of Immigration and Integration said it would “focus on women and children” as has been the case “in previous years”.

The refugees to be redistributed from UN refugee camps are currently located in Rwanda and in UN camps in countries bordering Afghanistan and Eritrea, the ministry said.

“We want to limit the number of spontaneous asylum seekers who come to Denmark via cynical human traffickers,” Bek said in the statement.

“That’s why the government fully supports the UN’s quota system, whereby refugees come to Denmark under regulated conditions,” he said.

“We have always said that the number is very important. I believe that, by keeping the number at 200 quota refugees, we ensure the integration process can keep up,” he said.

Quota refugees are distributed by the UN’s refugee agency, UNHCR from refugee camps in areas close to conflict zones.

Denmark refused to take in any refugees under the UN quota system between 2016 and 2019, with the government at the time saying the country needed to focus on integrating refugees recently arrived in the country.

Denmark has taken in 200 quota refugees from the UN each year since 2020.

According to the website of the UNHCR, some 117 million people are displaced worldwide. Nearly 160,000 were resettled in 2023, either with or without UNHCR assistance. 69 percent of refugees are hosted in neighbouring countries.

Low- and middle-income countries host 75 percent of the world’s refugees while the least Developed Countries provided asylum to 21 per cent of the total in 2023, according to UNHCR.