Denmark: Opposition wants health campaigns in Arabic

The Danish opposition parties (Social Liberals and Social Democrats) want to set aside 15 million kroner for public health campaigns in Arabic.

"We need to use the language that people understand. It doesn't help that we do it whole in Danish when immigrants today make up 7.5% of the population," says Lone Dybkjær (Social Liberals). The party wants to find out the specific challenges facing non-Danish speakers and have targeted campaigns for them. "For example, it's not so relevant to run alcohol campaigns for the Turkish-speaking citizens. When it comes to fighting obesity, for example, it will be relevant to expand the campaigns also to include the three most spoken foreign languages," Lone Dybkjær told Danish paper Information.

According to the Danish Board of Health, non-Danes have higher chances of getting some diseases, like diabetes, chronic lung disease, heart disease, HIV/AIDs and induced abortions. "Therefore there's a need to intensify the preventative efforts aimed at these groups," the board's site says.

The DPP and Liberals oppose the idea. Birgitte Josefsen (Liberals) says that the municipalities support immigrants during the integration period, and that after that, they should be able to communicate in Danish.