COPENHAGEN, Denmark – An 18-year-old Kurdish girl is at the center of media and political focus in Denmark: The government wants her deported on grounds she cannot successfully integrate, and she says that in four years in the country she has mastered the language, topped her school grades and her entire family lives in Denmark.
Danish authorities want Songul Yuksel returned to her roots in Konya, Turkey, because they say she does not meet requirements for a residence permit. In their response to Yuksel’s application, immigration authorities wrote that she cannot “achieve such ties with Denmark that is the basis for a successful integration in this country.”
“Songul Yuksel had stayed in Turkey until 2009, and she attended school in Turkey for nine years. She entered for the first time in Denmark at the age of 14, and currently is an adult and should be able to take care of herself,” says Ozlem Akar of the Danish Immigration Service.
But several politicians have challenged the case on the basis of her language skills, school marks and family ties in Denmark.
As things stand, within one month she must leave family and friends in Denmark and go live with a sick, 80-year-old grandmother in Turkey whom she says she barely knows. She must obey the deportation order or risk arrest by Danish police.
The authorities say that Yuksel’s mother lives in Turkey and should be able to take care of the girl. But her files show that her mother had divorced Yuksel’s father and remarried.
According to Denmark’s Politiken newspaper, the girl has top marks in Danish social studies and literature.
"I came out of high school with top marks. If this is not integration, what is integration? I do not understand,” Yuksel was quoted as saying.
Politicians across the political divide believe that the Kurdish girl should be allowed to stay.
"It is incomprehensible that one does not believe that a girl, who gets top marks, can get integrated,” said Karina Lorentzen, an MP from the Socialist People's Party.
"When you're so good at social studies and literature, it shows that you have a keen interest in and knowledge of how Danish society is organized,” said Inger Støjberg from the Liberal Party said.
The Social Democrat Lars Aslan Rasmussen, who has a Kurdish father and Danish mother, believes that the whole case reflects a double standard. He notes that members of the radical Islamist groups such as Hizb ul-Tahrir, which wants to impose Sharia rule and whose members have been convicted of anti-Semitism, cannot be deported because they have Danish citizenship, while Yuksel has to look forward to deportation.
"Members of Hizb ul-Tahrir, convicted of threatening Danish Jews, may well be in Denmark, while a successful high school girl should not. It is incomprehensible and unjust," says Rasmussen.
The criticism has meant that Denmark's Justice Minister Karen Haekkerup has now stepped into the fray. She will now discuss the case with other political parties and see if the law can be changed and Yuksel may be allowed to stay.
"Most people can see that it is terrible to send a young girl out to an uncertain future far away from her family," Haekkerup told reporters, while refusing to promise that she can have the girl remain in Denmark.
Meanwhile, the right-wing Danish People's Party says that reversing the deportation is not the right way to proceed. The party’s Martin Henriksen says that if the law is changed for Yuksel, it would mean that anyone who can make a case in the media can manipulate the law.
