Departure centres
The Immigration Service runs two departure centres in collaboration with the Danish Red Cross.
The two centres are located at Sandholm accommodation centre, in Allerød Municipality, and Avnstrup accommodation centre, in Lejre Municipality.
Residents at departure centres are typically asylum seekers who refuse to co-operate with the police over their departure from Denmark, having received the final rejection of their application for asylum, and who have not left the country by the set deadline.
Special conditions
A number of special conditions apply at the departure centres:
Residents will usually be placed on the food allowance programme. This means they are only given money to buy food, i.e. they do not receive any other form of cash allowance. However, at Sandholm accommodation centre, some residents do not receive money to buy food, as the centre has cafeteria service, i.e. residents are provided with a free meal three times daily. Read more about the
food allowance programme.
There are extra guards to ensure that only persons with legitimate business are allowed access to centres. This means that only persons invited by residents are admitted to centres.
Police are present in order to ensure that order is maintained.
Residents who are awaiting departure, but are not co-operation with the police over their departure, are not permitted to participate in Danish language courses, external internships or internal production activities.