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Center Sandholm, or Sandholm, is a public institution for asylum seekers in Denmark. It is located in Sandholm, Blovstrød, Allerød Kommune. Children and young people under 18 who have fled alone are received at Center Gribskov. It is a former military barracks and the largest reception center for asylum seekers in Denmark. The center's daily operations are run by the Danish Red Cross. It also serves as both a receiving and departure center, for newly arrived asylum seekers, and asylum seekers who have been rejected; however, this later group will eventually be moved over to the Sjælsmark deportation camp. Separated from the Red Cross facility, Sandholm also offers a branch of the Immigration Service, the National Police Immigration Department, and Ellebæk, a penal institutions for detained asylum seekers.
Applicants receive basic information about the asylum process in Denmark - and are offered a medical check. Special attention is paid to the most vulnerable, such as asylum seekers with trauma, victims of torture, families with small children or elderly people with impaired health. Center Sandholm also has a kindergarten, minding children while their parents go to interviews with authorities or resting.
Center Sandholm houses approximately 500 residents. There are three types of accommodation: a building with family rooms and private bathroom, two buildings with 4-person rooms and common bathrooms and toilets in the corridor, and 6 new buildings with double rooms with private bathroom. There are also laundry, cafeteria, health clinic, residents' phones and various tenant-led activities, such as sewing, an info cafe, a women's group and bicycle workshop. Residents can either eat in the center's cafeteria, or receive money so they may cook for themselves.
Asylum seekers are offered a short course in Danish and knowledge of Denmark for everyday use, which are taught in the center.
School age children go to the Danish Red Cross' school in Lynge, or the local public schools. The Center Sandholm also has a playgroup and smaller club for older children.
They claim to have followed police directions, and that the police reacted with unnecessary violence. It is clear that there were around 200 police sent to protect the center, who erected plastic barricades at some distance from it to prevent access. They fired teargas at protesters, which drifted back into the center. Protesters also claim that the police ran into them with their vehicles. The inner fence was breached in several places and the protesters deemed the protest a symbolic success.
Other reports suggest that part of group, at least, were violent and provoked the police in order to distract attention from a smaller group who caused damage to the inner wire fence. This was signaled with purple plumes, and it was called into by megaphones to follow these plumes to the illegal part of the demonstration.
The police have denied the accusations of excessive violence and say that the tear gas was appropriate in the situation, and that they were attacked by demonstrators.
Youth Red Cross called on the people behind the Action Close camp to engage in asylum policy by volunteering in asylum centers, a spokesman for the Action Close camp rejected this idea.
Critics have noted that residents in the Sandholm camp are free to move in and out through the gate, so there should be no reason to cut a hole in the fence. Port Control prevents the unauthorized entry of outsiders only, to guard against drugs and prostitution.
"We have chosen to prevent and delay as many protesters as possible from reaching the refugee camp Saturday 25 10 08. To achieve this, we have decided to dismantle the safety features on the S-train line between Copenhagen. And Hillerød. The cables for signaling and telecommunications were clipped at about 1045."
It is not known if any charges have been laid.
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