Denmark is regularly ranked as one of the happiest countries in the world – with a cosy international reputation as the home of hygge and Lego, the idealistic fictional prime minister Birgitte Nyborg in Borgen and the woolly jumpers of TV detective Sarah Lund. 

But that warmth does not extend to asylum seekers – and in recent years the country has developed some of the toughest illegal migration policies in Europe, despite being led for six years by a centre-left politician.

PM Mette Frederiksen’s “zero refugees” policy is not just popular – it has enabled her to successfully face down her right-wing opponents.

The number of successful asylum claims in Denmark has fallen to a 40-year low – and 95% of failed claimants are deported.

Facing a rampant Reform UK and plummeting approval ratings amid explosive public anger over small boat crossings and asylum hotels, it’s no wonder Sir Keir Starmer and his team are desperate to learn from their example.

Sir Keir and Ms Frederiksen are closely aligned on issues of defence and security – standing side by side at meetings of the Coalition of the Willing and united in their staunch support for Ukraine.

Now the UK – like many other European countries – is explicitly modelling itself on the Danish approach to migration too.

I understand that, since she was appointed two months ago, new Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has been looking at Denmark’s policies across the board – but there’s particular interest in their tight restrictions on family reunification, and the use of temporary visas for successful asylum seekers (which become invalid if their home countries are regarded as safe to return to).

Home Office officials recently travelled to Copenhagen to learn from their Danish counterparts ahead of a major shake-up of the asylum system later this month.

The Sunday Times reports this could see successful asylum seekers forced to repay the costs of their accommodation and benefits – and they will only be accepted if they speak a high standard of English and have no criminal record.

This focus on the Danish model has been enthusiastically welcomed by Red Wall MPs like Jo White from Bassetlaw.

“We came into government in 2024 saying that we’re going to be tackling this issue head on and that’s what I promised my constituents,” she told me.

“We have seen the growth of Reform who are solely focused on this. And if we are going to fill the space where we can actually deliver on our priorities, we have to tackle the small boats and the asylum system head on.

“Denmark is seen as one of the toughest countries in Europe for dealing with asylum claims. And what’s even more interesting is that it’s a democratic socialist leadership. They had to tackle this issue when they came into power because the fight was with the far right who were leading on this issue, and they recognised that they had to manage the process in order to be able to focus on delivering their policies.”

It’s an issue which increasingly splits the party. Many on the left are deeply alarmed about the UK following a more draconian Danish path – with MPs like Nadia Whittome and Clive Lewis describing their ideas as “hardcore”, “dangerous”, “far right” and in some cases “racist”.

Some of the most controversial policies include confiscating valuable jewellery from migrants crossing the border and demolishing apartment blocks where more than 50% of residents are of what they define as “non-Western” backgrounds.

It seems vanishingly unlikely those more extreme ideas will be on the agenda for Ms Mahmood and her team.

But she’s a tough operator. What’s striking about the week’s revelations about Denmark is how little comment there’s been from either Reform UK or the Conservatives.

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Yes, it’s recess. But there’s also an uncomfortable feeling that the right-wing parties thoroughly agree with the home secretary’s robust approach.

If she’s successful in bringing down the numbers (and that’s a huge if), Reform’s key attacks on the government would be largely neutralised.

Some experts and asylum charities argue the Danish approach would fail to translate to the UK – with desperate refugees drawn to Britain because they speak English and have existing networks of family and friends here.

Steve Smith of Care for Calais said: “The deterrence isn’t going to work, because you’re dealing with people who are fleeing something far worse.

“These are desperate people and trying to put in desperate measures isn’t going to work, because those desperate measures can never be as desperate.”

But Ms Mahmood has promised to do “whatever it takes” to get a grip on the issue, and it seems she’s prepared to look at increasingly radical solutions to do so.

The chief inspector of prisons has said the recent spate of prisoners being released too early is “a symptom of a system that is close to breaking point”. 

Charlie Taylor’s assessment comes as it is revealed that two prisoners wrongly released last year are still at large, as are two others believed to have been freed in error in June this year.

Writing in The Daily Telegraph, Mr Taylor said the growing number of mistaken early releases was “embarrassing and potentially dangerous”.

He also put it down to “an overcomplicated sentencing framework” and described it as “a symptom of a system that is close to breaking point”.

He said prison inspections “repeatedly highlight the failure to keep prisons secure, safe and decent, and to provide the sort of activity that will help inmates get work on release”.

In his opinion piece, the chief inspector pointed to successive governments’ responses to the overcrowding crisis in the system, which put pressure on “junior prison staff who repeatedly had to recalculate every prisoner’s release date”.

These calculations, he wrote, had been made harder by a series of early-release schemes brought in by successive governments.

The changes, he said, “increase the likelihood of mistakes and in three years the number of releases in error has gone up from around 50 a year to 262”.

It comes as ministers face mounting pressure over a series of high-profile manhunts, with Justice Secretary David Lammy admitting on Friday there is a “mountain to climb” to tackle the crisis in the prison system.

Algerian sex offender Brahim Kaddour-Cherif, 24, was arrested on Friday after a police search following his release from HMP Wandsworth in south London last week, which Scotland Yard said officers only found out about on Tuesday.

His recapture was partly down to investigative work by Sky’s national correspondent, Tom Parmenter, who tracked Kaddour-Cherif down to Finsbury Park in north London before he handed himself in to police.

Convicted fraudster Billy Smith, 35, handed himself back in on Thursday after being accidentally freed from the same jail on Monday.

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It follows the mistaken release of Hadush Kebatu, who was convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and a woman while living in an asylum hotel. The incidents sparked protests in Epping, Essex.

Prison security checks have been toughened and an independent investigation into mistaken releases launched after the now-deported Ethiopian national was accidentally freed from HMP Chelmsford on 24 October.

A total of 262 inmates were mistakenly let out in the year to March 2025 – a 128% increase on the 115 in the previous 12 months, according to the latest official figures.

Of the total, 90 releases in error were of violent or sex offenders.

Kaddour-Cherif was serving a sentence for trespass with intent to steal, but had previously been convicted for indecent exposure.

He is understood to have overstayed his visitor’s visa to the UK after arriving in 2019, and was in the process of being deported.

Asked about the four missing prisoners on Friday, shadow justice secretary Robert Jenrick said: “The chaos continues. The government keeps putting the British people at risk and is relentlessly failing victims. Does anyone have confidence in David Lammy?”

Mr Lammy said on Friday: “We inherited a prison system in crisis, and I’m appalled at the rate of releases in error this is causing.

“I’m determined to grip this problem, but there is a mountain to climb which cannot be done overnight.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said releases in error “have been increasing for several years and are another symptom of a justice system crisis inherited by this government”.

In a statement on Saturday, the ministry said it has introduced “mandatory, stronger prisoner release checks to keep our streets safe and protect the public as well as investing record amounts into our courts – including to improve operational assurance.

“We’re also investing billions, reforming sentencing and building the prison places needed to keep the public safe.”

Faruk Fatih Özer was found dead in his prison cell on Nov. 1. The former CEO of now-defunct crypto exchange Thodex was serving an 11,000-year sentence for running one of the largest crypto scams in history.

His death marks the latest turn in the Thodex saga, with ripple effects so significant they altered Turkish cryptocurrency laws.

The initial details of Özer’s death point to suicide, but the investigation is still ongoing. It has once more brought Thodex back into the spotlight.

Here’s a look back at Özer’s story, how the crypto exchange impacted Turkish law and how it may have contributed to the country’s increased crypto adoption.

$2-billion Thodex scam sees raids, arrest and CEO out on the lam

On April 21, 2021, Thodex cryptocurrency exchange suddenly shut down trading and withdrawals. The initial announcement read that this could continue for four to five days. As Cointelegraph Turkey reported at the time, the exchange claimed that this was to improve its operations with the help of “world-renowned banks and funding companies.”

But local media reported that Özer had fled to Thailand with over $2 billion in funds as part of an exit scam. There were also reports that police had raided the exchange’s offices in Istanbul.

Istanbul’s chief prosecutor’s office corroborated the reports the following day. It announced a probe into Thodex and said police had arrested 62 people allegedly involved in the scam. Özer denied the accusations, claiming his trip abroad was to meet foreign investors.

As of April 30, 2021, a Turkish court decided to jail six suspects, including family members of the missing CEO and senior company employees, pending trial. Interpol also issued a red notice for Özer.

“When he is caught with the red notice, we have extradition agreements with a large part of these countries. God willing he will be caught and he will be returned,” said Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu.

Özer managed to evade capture for over a year. Albanian authorities eventually detained him on Aug. 30, 2022. He attempted to appeal extradition in court, but the decision was upheld, and Özer was in Turkish custody by April 30, 2023, two years after the scandal began.

The case against Özer was swift. In July 2023, just three months after arriving in Turkey, he was sentenced to seven months and 15 days in prison for failing to submit certain documents requested by the Tax Inspection Board during the trial.

On Sept. 8, 2023, the Anatolian 9th High Criminal Court sentenced Özer, along with two of his siblings, to 11,196 years, 10 months and 15 days in prison, along with a $5-million fine.

In court, Özer claimed that he and his family were facing false accusations. He said, “I am smart enough to manage all institutions in the world. This is evident from the company I founded at the age of 22. If I were to establish a criminal organization, I would not act so amateurishly. … It is clear that the suspects in the file have been victims for more than 2 years.”

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Özer was serving his sentence at the Tekirdağ No. 1 F-Type High Security Closed Penal Institution when he died. F-Type prisons are high-security institutions reserved for political prisoners, members of organized crime syndicates and other armed groups serving an aggravated life sentence.

Human rights advocates have repeatedly raised concerns about the conditions at F-Type prisons. In 2007, Amnesty International noted “harsh and arbitrary” disciplinary treatments, as well as isolation.

Turkey changes its laws to protect investors

The Thomex scandal and its ensuing fallout were so significant that they drove the Turkish government to change its policies toward cryptocurrencies.

Immediately following news of Özer fleeing the country, the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey banned crypto payments and prohibited payment providers from offering fiat on-ramps for crypto exchanges. The official notice outlawed “any direct or indirect usage of crypto assets in payment services and electronic money issuance.” Notably, the ban excluded banks, meaning that users can still deposit lira onto crypto exchange accounts using bank transfers.

The ban aimed to ensure financial stability, while other agencies like the Capital Markets Board (CMB) and the Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) moved to legitimize trading activities. In May 2021, MASAK amended money laundering and terrorism financing laws to include provisions for cryptocurrency.

By 2024, the “Law on Amendments to the Capital Markets Law” came into effect. This built on the initial changes in 2021, which included extensive consumer protection measures in addition to provisions on licensing and reporting.

These new measures, which also aimed to move Turkey off the Financial Action Task Force’s “gray list” of countries with inadequate Anti-Money Laundering measures, have in turn helped spur the local crypto industry.

Chainalysis’ “2025 Geography of Crypto Report” found that Turkey led the Middle East and North Africa in value received in crypto. Trading activity also spiked last year.

In the long term, the Thodex scandal may have led to increased crypto adoption in the country, but only after it rocked the Turkish crypto industry and left many investors out to dry. It also resulted in the imprisonment and death of its orchestrator and CEO.

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