A visit to a deportation centre for illegal migrants by the Danish minister for immigration and integration Friday quickly turned violent as angry residents attempted to attack the politician, before throwing themselves in front her departing car.
Danish immigration and integration minister Inger Støjberg took to Facebook after the event to explain she had been visiting the deportation centre to speak with a family of migrants who were due to be removed from the country. However, instead of the conversation, the minister had expected scenes turned ugly as “around 40” people “became very excited”, leading to what she called an “aggressive mood”.
Footage from the incident acquired by Danish newspapers shows Støjberg’s security detail having to push back migrants as they extracted her from the building, and punches being thrown at police officers. As the minister’s car drove away from the scene, closely followed by a protection squad vehicle, a number of migrants stood in the way of the car — at least one of whom appears to have gone underneath the wheels.
Danish media reports “several” were hit by the car, but that there were no serious injuries.
A police spokesman speaking to Denmark’s Politiken explained: “a number of people threw themselves up over the car and in front of it”. Calling it a “dangerous situation”, another said the minister was “one bodyguard away from being in real danger”.
Støjberg thanked her protection officers and driver for getting her out of the situation, remarking that without them it would have ended very differently and that “I would not be stood here now”.
While the minister said she felt sympathy for those being deported, she also pointed out those at the centre were there because they had chosen not to cooperate with authorities in their removal from the country.
Støjberg already has an uncompromising reputation on the subject of mass migration to her Western Europe nation. Breitbart London reported in 2016 when the politician was heckled in the street by two “non-ethnic Danes” who complained of her politics on immigration — and that she shouted back “get a job!” at them.
In a bid to reduce the number of arrivals, Støjberg launched a new initiative taking out full-page newspaper adverts in foreign newspapers in countries like Lebanon informing would-be migrants that the Danish government was reducing benefits available to newcomers, and laying out the difficulties they could expect to encounter in trying to apply for asylum.
In September, Støjberg shared a screenshot of her iPad wallpaper, showing her selection of “Kurt Westergaard’s famous drawing” of Islamic figure Muhammed wearing a bomb turban. Explaining “I do so because I love Denmark” that allowed the artist to create the work in the first place.
Danish cartoonist Kurt Westergaard created the work as an entry into a freedom of expression competition hosted by newspaper Jyllands-Posten. He has been the subject of a number of murder attempts since, and now lives with a 24-hour bodyguard.