I’ve seen first hand how liberal Denmark solved their migration crisis. This is exactly how they did it and why I believe it will work here: SUE REID

About an hour outside Copenhagen, two bland-looking government headquarters sit on opposite sides of a road through the flat Danish countryside.

One of these is the reception camp in Sandholm, the first stop of refugees coming to the country. The second one, Sjaelsmark, is a place very similar to this. This is where immigrants await swift deportation.

These twin areas form the center of Denmark’s immigration system. Brutally effective and completely ruthless, this approach created an environment hostile to illegal entry and was applauded by left-wing Danish voters at the ballot box.

When a deportation order is made (which is often the case), requests for clemency are ignored. An expiring immigrant is sent back to their home country accompanied by Danish guards, often accompanied by an official from the European Union.

The deported person is handed over to the police at his destination. And that, as the Danes might say, is the end of the matter.

No wonder Sir Keir Starmer is jealously eyeing the Danish model as we try to solve our own out-of-control immigration – not to mention our abject failure to eliminate those who have no right to be here.

Last week, more than 1,700 foreigners arrived in Dover expecting free housing, food, medical care and pocket money as the Channel winds abated. Whether any of them will ever break up again is anyone’s guess. But almost certainly not.

Earlier this year, Starmer met his Danish counterpart Mette Frederiksen in Downing Street and explained how his Social Democrat government had achieved a 90 per cent drop in asylum applications.

Interior Minister Shabana Mahmood sent her own senior officials to Copenhagen to investigate what lessons could be learned from the Danes

In 2024, that number fell to 2,333 after Danes told immigrants in a successful international social media campaign: ‘You are not welcome here.’ A few weeks ago, Home Affairs Minister Shabana Mahmood took action, sending her own senior officials to Copenhagen to explore what lessons could be learned from the Danes.

Ms Frederiksen’s government has described unfettered immigration as ‘a daily threat to the life of Europe’. He wants to protect the livelihoods of working-class Danes and prevent schools and welfare systems from being put under pressure by newcomers.

Seven years ago the country banned the burqa and later implemented a ‘no ghetto’ policy by dispersing immigrants to provincial towns. The lucky few who can stay in the country have to attend compulsory Danish lessons.

Many people may ask what’s wrong with this. Like many Britons, I see nothing wrong. But inevitably the thought of a Danish-style plan has triggered a backlash from some Labor MPs.

Nadia Whittome, who represents Nottingham East, told BBC Radio 4’s Today program it was ‘racist’, adding: ‘I think it’s a moral, political and electoral dead end.’

Fellow Labor MP Clive Lewis of South Norwich accused Denmark’s Social Democrats of being ‘tough’ on immigration and embracing ‘far-right’ ideas.

However, this sharp-tongued criticism will take water off a Danish duck’s back. God knows what our open border fanatics will say about Denmark’s decision that immigrants carrying gold or jewelery must surrender it at the border to cover the cost of their stay.

Because here’s the clever part: This policy pulled the rug out from under the Right-wing parties that had been silenced by the Social Democrats’ success story. After Mrs. Frederiksen’s visit to London, I went to Denmark. I talked to asylum seekers coming in and rejected immigrants going out.

Labor MP Nadia Whittome calls idea of ​​a Danish-style immigration model ‘racist’

I discovered that it was not only people of Danish origin who welcomed their government’s tough stance, but also successfully settled immigrants.

In Copenhagen, Palestinian Ismail Schbaita offered me a cup of tea in his corner shop. It is located in an area where turf wars once took place, where immigrants lived because of drugs and gun fights on the streets. Two bullets left over from the bad old days lacerate the door of his shop.

He said things had improved beyond recognition since the crackdown on burqas, ghettos and immigration when the Social Democrats came to power in 2019: ‘It’s completely different. We’re much safer.’

The next day, at the Sandholm reception centre, it was clear that many migrants were ‘asylum seekers’ who had come to Denmark from EU countries that had already deported them.

One of them was a 53-year-old Syrian Kurd named Hosain, who crossed the German border with two friends in a smart white Mercedes a week ago.

He claimed to be a plasterer ‘dealing with cash’ and showed me a picture of his work in Hamburg.

He was carrying a tanbur, a Kurdish stringed instrument, which he proudly played for me in the parking lot.

Hosain’s chances of gaining asylum, which he applied for immediately upon arrival, seemed slim to me.

He said he had four ex-wives and seven children scattered all over Europe.

‘Denmark is my last chance,’ he added with what appeared to be a wink. I knew his next stop would be Sjaelsmark, the deportation center across the road, and it would be a one-way ticket back to Germany and his black market business.

Of course, things can go wrong in any system. ‘Real refugees are falling out of the net,’ said Soren Sondergard, a 70-year-old Leftist politician and former member of the European Parliament.

I agreed with him. I have always thought that the greatest enemy of deserving refugees is the rogues who come to Britain for profit and deceive our gullible, Left politicians in the process.

However, in Sjaelsmark I met Carlson Agwo, a 48-year-old Cameroonian lawyer.

He was caught up in a little-reported civil war in his own country between the English-speaking community (to which he belonged and to which he gave legal advice) and the French-speakers who dominated the country.

In my opinion, he deserved to stay in Denmark. But it was returned.

He told me via WhatsApp this week: ‘On the morning of May 19, three police officers arrested me at the deportation centre. I was transferred to prison and my phone was confiscated.

‘Two days later, at 4 am, I was taken by road to Brussels airport by the same police, and from there I flew to Cameroon. I was put in a prison cell.

‘The Danish authorities were aware of this imprisonment before he left to return. I was released [from jail in Cameroon] But only after my family begged me to.’

Carlson is currently hiding in his home country.

He told me that going to Denmark was a ‘bad choice’. And unfortunately, this is the message that Copenhagen wants to give, despite all its liberalism.

He hopes any immigrant considering knocking on the door will hear this message loud and clear.

Now, many Britons like me can only pray that Keir Starmer will be brave enough to fight against the Leftist reactionaries and follow the pioneering Danish example.