Dozens of Danish jihadists receive state benefits

It’s not the first time that Danish jihadists have been reported spunging on taxpayers. In 2014, Danish Security and Intelligence Service (PET) disclosed information on 28 jihadists, receiving benefits while fighting in Syria.

It still remains unclear whether the state managed to get the payments back from the jihadists that time or if the latest total were included the 2014 figures.

Local media sources in Denmark say at least 36 people have left Denmark to join ISIS, and all are known to authorities, but they continue to receive welfare payments.

At least 135 people have left Denmark to join the Islamic State jihad, according to PET. Denmark is believed to be the second European country after Belgium supplying the most fighters to ISIS.

The total number of fighting Danish jihadists are on par with the Danish army’s 150-soldier unit, deployed in Iraq as a part of the US-backed coalition fighting ISIS.

According to the Ekstra Bladet newspaper, thirty-four alleged jihadists received cash benefits from municipal authorities, and two others were paid via private but heavily state-subsidized funds. The newspaper had obtained the improperly disbursed payments from the Danish Employment Ministry through a freedom of information request.

The municipalities and the private funds have demanded a repayment of benefits from the 29 of the jihadists, while the seven other fighters have presumably been killed in action.

Members of the Employment Committee of the Danish Parliament from two opposing political forces were surprisingly unanimous in their condemnation and said that the monies – a hefty sum of 672,000 kroner (around $77,300) – ought to be repaid.

“It is totally reprehensible. It is clear that you must be available to the Danish labor market when receiving cash, so you obviously do not travel abroad, and one should certainly not travel to a place where you take part in something like that,” Karsten Honge of the Socialist People’s Party told the Ekstra Bladet.

A representative of the Danish People’s Party Bent Bogsted also expressed indignation. “They are not available for work, and they cannot be if they are involved in the conflict in Syria, so they must be deprived of cash assistance,” Bogsted said.

Denmark’s Employment Minister Troels Lund Poulsen has promised to “take action”. He told the newspaper: “It is totally unacceptable and a disgrace. It must be stopped. If you travel to Syria to participate in war, to become an ISIS fighter, then you obviously do not have any right for benefits from the government.”

The untenable situation was blamed on state security. PET had issued no warnings about suspicious individuals, the minister said. Also a climate of acceptance reigned in local authorities: Only one of the jihadists out of the 36 was reported to the police by a municipality.