UN and other international organisations

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR)

The Integration Ministry works closely with the UN High Commissioner on Refugees (UNHCR).

Aside from continuous contact with the UNHCR on diverse questions of asylum, the Ministry takes part in the annual meeting of the UNHCR's executive committee, where UNHCR meets with those countries that have made efforts to help the world's refugees, together with other relevant countries and organisations. The meeting makes various standards and conclusions on issues like international protection.

Denmark is also active in numerous other activities under the UNHCR, such as a working group which works towards the resettlement of quota refugees.

The UN commission 'Global Commission on International Migration (GCIM)' was established in December 2003. Consultations have been held in all parts of the world on the issue of migration.

High level talks will be held in New York on 14-15 September 2006, where many different aspects of migration and development will be discussed.

The Council of Europe

The Integration Ministry follows the work made in the field of asylum and immigration by the Council of Europe, including taking part in work on the steering committee for immigration (European Committee on Migration), which concerns itself with immigration and integration from a human rights perspective.

Inter-governmental Consultation (IGC)

IGC (Inter-governmental Consultations on Asylum, Refugee and Migration Policies in Europe, North America and Australia) is an independent think tank, which works with matters concerning migration and asylum.

There are currently 15 nations taking part in IGC cooperation (Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and USA), which is supported by a smaller secretariat in Genève. 

In addition to this, Greece is to take part in cooperative actions from 1 January 2007. IGC is concerned primarily with promoting the exchange of information between IGC nations, including identifying the optimum procedure.

International Organisation for Migration (IOM)

The Integration Ministry cooperates with IOM on various programmes. These include assisting asylum seekers in returning to their countries of birth, contributing to building migration systems in countries where a better migration management system is necessary, preventative action against human smuggling and the transport handling of quota refugees.