Is Denmark's immigration system fit for use in Britain?

The home secretary is gearing up to set out a major shakeup of the asylum system in the coming weeks, which is expected to be modelled on Denmark.

- MILLIE COOKE

The country has one of the toughest immigration systems in Europe, and senior officials are hoping that taking lessons from the Scandinavian nation could help bring down the growing number of people arriving in the UK via small boats.

A delegation of senior officials went to Copenhagen last month to learn about their interventions and draw lessons that could be applied to the UK.

Why is the government looking to Denmark?

The plan to copy Denmark comes as the government ramps up its efforts to bring down migration in the UK, amid growing public anger over the issue. It has been a difficult few months for the government, with Britain seeing rising numbers of small boat crossings in the Channel and a migrant deported under the UK’s returns deal with France reentering the country.

At Labour’s party conference in September, Shabana Mahmood pledged to “do whatever it takes” to regain control of Britain’s borders - but the government is yet to get a grip on the number of people making the dangerous crossing, with the total who have arrived in the UK by small boat this year reaching 37,575 on 6 November.

The decision to look at the Danish system comes as part of an attempt to slash the “pull factors” that draw people to the UK, as well as making it easier to remove those with no right to stay.