The Kingdom of Denmark will pay for an “integration plan” and a prosthetic leg for a Nigerian pirate after granting him residency, two years after he attacked the Danish Navy off the coast of Africa.
Nigerian Lucky Frances will receive taxpayer-funded aid in attaining employment and education to help him “integrate” into Denmark after being brought to the country in 2021 when he lost his leg in a firefight with the Danish navy after his band of pirates attacked the Esbern Snare frigate off the coast of Africa, the local BT newspaper reports.
Not only did the African pirate avoid imprisonment for attacking the Danish sailors, despite being found guilty, but he was also granted a residence permit to remain in the country earlier this year. Adding insult to injury, a court ordered that the state pay for the Nigerian national to be fitted with a prosthetic leg.
“This is absolutely absurd. That man should never have been in Denmark and to imagine that he can now be meaningfully integrated in Denmark is completely over the moon,” said integration spokesman for the conservative-populist Danish People’s Party, Mikkel Bjørn.
Asked if it would be better to try to integrate Lucky, Bjørn retorted: “Well, his skills are to be a pirate, right? In any case, I can’t see that he can make a meaningful contribution to Danish society.”
“No, he shouldn’t be let out at all. He has tried to kill Danish soldiers, and therefore he should be in prison or in a closed immigration centre,” he added.
Even liberal Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said per Newsweek: “I cannot defend this decision.”
While the Nigerian pirate initially expressed some desire to return to his homeland, he later applied for asylum in Denmark and was granted a residence permit to remain in the country in January.
Speaking last year, Lucky said: “I don’t want to go back and live the life I lived before. It’s too physically demanding, I can’t do it with just one leg.
“If I am going back to Africa, I need to be strong, to have a future. You have to be able to work hard there if you want to survive, and I can’t do that now.”
Following the disclosure this week of the state entering into an “integration contract” with her client, the pirate’s attorney Emma Ring Damgaard said: “This makes good sense… There is a long and painful rehabilitation program ahead. You can’t just send him back to Nigeria.”
The governing Danish Social Liberal Party also defended the decision, with MP Zenia Stampe saying: “Those are the rules, after all. If you turn it around, it would be strange if you did not require him to go through such a process in order to receive integration benefits.”
Danish broadcaster DR has reported that the lengthy series of court cases involving the Nigerian national have cost the Danish taxpayers an estimated 4.2 million Danish kroner, or around $615,000.
This calculation does not take into account the costs associated with helping to provide him with a prosthetic or the costs of helping him integrate into the country.