Summaries of selected statements | 59 Ministry of Immigration and Integration The following statements on cases concluded in 2019 have been published: 2019-5. Internal e-mail at Immigration Service comprised by Ombudsman’s request for files of case In 2017, the Ombudsman concluded an investigation involving the Ministry of Immigration and Integration concerning an instruction which the Minister had issued in 2016 to the Danish Immigration Service about the accommodation of married or cohabiting underage asylum seekers. The Minister’s written instruction was supplemented by verbal instructions to the Immigration Service. On investigating the matter, the Ombudsman concluded, among other things, that the written instruction was illegal by virtue of its content and involved a considerable risk of incorrect decisions being made in the specific cases, and that the Ministry’s course of action was a matter for extreme criticism. In connection with his investigation, the Ombudsman had asked for those of the files of the Ministry and the Immigration Service which ‘illustrate the authorities’ legal deliberations in relation to the instruction’, including, for instance, e-mails, ‘belly bands’, text messages, handwritten notes, etc. Less than three months after the Ombudsman had concluded his investigation, an employee of the Immigration Service by chance found an internal e-mail from the director of the Immigration Service about the view expressed verbally by the Minister in relation to the accommodation of married or cohabiting underage asylum seekers at a meeting with the Immigration Service. The Ombudsman had not received a copy of the e-mail in connection with his investigation. The Immigration Service and the Ministry subsequently stated to the Ombudsman that the e-mail did not illustrate legal deliberations in relation to the instruction, and that this was the reason why it was not sent to the Ombudsman later. The Ombudsman found it a cause for concern that the Immigration Service had not found the e-mail earlier, and in his opinion it was a clear error of judgement that the e-mail was not considered to be subject to the requirement to surrender documents to the Ombudsman. In addition, the Ombudsman stated that the course of events must give the Immigration Service and the Ministry of Immigration and Integration cause for consideration with a view to avoiding similar situations and errors in future. Overall, the e-mail did not give the Ombudsman cause to take further action in relation to what he had stated in his report from 2017. 2019-10. Length of processing time in case about humanitarian residence permit a matter for criticism. Unfortunate that question of deliberate protraction could arise A practising lawyer complained to the Ombudsman about the processing time of the Ministry of Immigration and Integration in a case about an application for a humanitarian residence permit on health grounds. The lawyer claimed that the Ministry had deliberately protracted the case. The Ombudsman found it a matter for criticism that the Ministry took more than 26 months to decide the case and that the case was at a standstill at the Ministry for three periods totalling almost 16 months. The Ombudsman found no basis for establishing that the Ministry had in fact protracted the case deliberately. However – in the light of the circumstances in the specific case, including the fact that medical information which had been submitted had become obsolete due to the inadequate progress of the case at the Ministry – he understood why the lawyer claimed that the Ministry had done so. The Ombudsman stated that he found it very unfortunate that the