Iraqi asylum seekers whose applications have been rejected and are facing a forcible return to their home country have sought refuge in local city church

Dozens of failed Iraqi asylum seekers have sought refuge in Brorsons Church in the Nørrebro district of Copenhagen after the Danish government agreed with their Iraqi counterparts for the forced repatriation of the refugees.

Almost 300 asylum seekers are affected by the agreement and an initial group of 10 had first sought refuge in the Vor Frue Church on Friday evening to highlight their plight. That  group quickly grew to almost 80 and the decision was taken to move to the Nørrebro church, where they are housed in the basement rooms looked after by Danish volunteers.

Mattresses and personal belongings are stacked around the rooms, while the volunteers secure food, bedding and clothing for the guests.

Shalaw, a 23-year-old student from Kirkuk in Iraq, is one of the men taking refuge in the church. He arrived in Denmark alone three years ago after his mother and brother were murdered by a terrorist group in his home city.

Shalaw travelled to Denmark via Turkey, smuggled here in a lorry. He was picked up by police at the Danish-German border, but because there was no record of him in Germany, he was able to claim asylum in Denmark.

Since that day he has been living at the Sandholm Asylum Centre in northern Zealand.

‘I didn’t come here just to take money. I want to be alive and didn’t want to be killed,’ said Shalaw, who said he fears retribution from the same group that killed his family if he returns to Iraq.

‘I have no problem with the government, but there are still some of the terrorist group living in my city and I would have to see them on a daily basis.’

Shalaw said he has been rejected for asylum twice by Immigration Service. And while his case worker was sympathetic to his situation, he was told that no Iraqis would receive a positive residency permit.

Of the 282 Iraqis facing repatriation, 23 are children, and Shalaw echoed the sentiments of the Danish Red Cross when he said that special consideration should be given to those who have been born here.

‘There are some who speak no Kurdish or Arabic, only Danish and English. They have no family in Iraq, so how are they supposed to go back there?’

Shalaw said that he and the other Iraqi families are prepared to stay in the church for as long as it takes in the hopes that the government will agree to let them stay. The group are hoping to achieve similar results to Palestinian asylum seekers, who overturned their forced repatriation with similar tactics in the 1990s.

Andreas Kamm, head of the Danish Refugee Council, said that Denmark should follow the lead of Syria, which has taken in one million Iraqi refugees and does not believe the situation in Iraq is secure enough to send them home.

‘Many of the Iraqi asylum-seekers here have been in the country for five to ten years. For most of that time the situation in their country has been so unstable that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees has recommended that countries like Denmark give them protection. Denmark has ignored this. The politicians have instead insisted that people go back to a country so clearly aflame,’ said Kamm.

Immigration Minister Birthe Rønn Hornbech was unmoved by the Iraqi protest at the weekend and told Politiken newspaper that their actions would not affect the legal outcome of their case.

‘The most they can achieve is to be irritating. The repatriation will be prepared regardless of this action,’ said Hornbech. ‘We have an agreement with Bagdad and it will continue as it should.’