Danish PM calls for European solution to refugee crisis

Danish Prime Minister Lars Loekke Rasmussen on Monday called for a European solution to the escalating refugee crisis.

"Europe is in a very special situation. The good solution is not a Danish solution. It is a European solution," Rasmussen told a press conference ahead of meeting with other parliamentary parties to discuss the current refugee situation.

"The European asylum system is on the brink of collapse... It is a problem that Denmark can not solve alone. It has to happen in a European context," the prime minister said, emphasizing that "national regulations will not help if the European asylum system collapse."

Rasmussen said that he had spoken with German Chancellor Angela Merkel over the weekend and offered to take 100 additional Syrian asylum seekers as "a political gesture."

However, he admitted that the offer is now off the table when as many as 400 migrants and refugees arrived in Denmark from Austria and Germany over the weekend.

Addressing the group of refugees who earlier on Monday left the southern Danish town of Roedby for Sweden, Rasmussen said they must be registered in Denmark as just letting them pass through the Danish border would be to "disregard our responsibilities."

"We need to help people in need. Denmark does that more than most other countries," said Rasmussen.

Meanwhile, the Danish government on Monday launched an advertising campaign in foreign newspapers aimed at deterring refugees from coming to the country.

The adverts list measures refugees and migrants should take into account if they decide to head for Denmark, including the new cut of social benefits, no possibility of family reunification during the first year, and quick repatriation of rejected asylum seekers.

Denmark's Minister for Integration and Housing Inger Stoejberg was cited by Danish news agency Ritzau as saying that Denmark does not want to be part of a common European asylum policy, not even a temporary one. Endit