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News in Brief: Outrage as foreign prisoner share hits 30 percent

Ben Hamilton
July 7th, 2017


This article is more than 7 years old.

In other news, smokers, weedburner and the weather are all being blamed for our problems

The number of foreigners being paid for by the taxpayer is unacceptable say MPs (photo: josealba)

The prison services are struggling to deal with the high level of foreign criminals currently incarcerated. As of July 1, only 2,382 of the 3,403 people currently detained are Danish – barely 70 percent. Romanians constitute the biggest group, followed by Somalis, Turks and Lithuanians. Language barriers and cultural problems cause a lot of problems, Fængselsforbundet chair Kim Østerbye told Berlingske, calling on the justice minister, Søren Pape Poulsen, to guaranteed more officers. MPs were quick to decry the situation. Last year, Poulsen’s predecessor Søren Pind suggested Denmark could purchase places in foreign prisons to save costs.

READ MORE: New British film laughs at the soft nature of Danish prisons

Smokers shouldn’t be paid for breaks – survey
Some 44 percent of Danes believe smokers should not be paid for their breaks, according to a Wilke survey for Avisen.dk. Søren Gosvig Olsen, a professor in philosophy at the University of Copenhagen, told the website that this was just another example of the ostracisation of smokers. “In truth, we want to have a scapegoat so we can feel good,” he said. A recent Dansk Erhverv survey revealed that smokers work longer hours at a third of all workplaces, and that conflicts between smokers and non smokers are common at 24 percent of them.

READ MORE: Danes: Smokers should pay for their smoking breaks

Thousands of fish die at salmon farm
A land-based salmon farm in the west Jutland town of Hvide Sande has lost a quarter of its annual production after 250,000 kilos of its fish died on June 30. Langsand Laks, which is owned by Atlantic Sapphire, cannot explain what caused the “sudden and unexpected” deaths, reports iLaks.no. The most likely explanation was contamination, speculate media, not illness or technical failure.

Weather hopes for holiday look bleak
The weather prognosis for Denmark as the July holiday begins in earnest this weekend is extremely average, with no strong hope that any warm weather – temperatures approaching 25 degrees as opposed to 20 – will hit Denmark over the next ten days. DMI blames a polar front that is further south than normal at this time of year.

Huge remoulade recall
Graasten Salater is recalling large quantities of remoulade after lactic acid bacteria was detected in some of the containers, which Fødevarestyrelsen has warned is “unsuitable for human consumption”. Packed between May 1 and June 21 with an expiry date of between August 29 and October 19, the affected makes are: Catering pølseremulade, Catering Remulade, Gestus Remulade, Graasten Original Remulade, Graasten Remulade Light, Høka Remulade, JK Remulade, Kokkens Remulade, Neutral Remulade and Rema1000 Remulade. Shoppers are advised to return their products to the store where they purchased them.

Weedburner usage a menace
Last year there were 250 fires caused by weedburners like the one yesterday at the Gigantium sports and culture centre in Aalborg , which began at around 11 am and destroyed parts of the large complex. So far this year, there have been a further 112 fires. The emergency agency Beredskabsstyrelsen blamed carelessness for most of the cases, but could not say whether Gigantium was caused by human error.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”