appendix d: summaries of selected cases 10-1. Refusal of access to correspondence between the Immigration Service and a privately owned enterprise A journalist asked the Immigration Service for access to the Service’s correspondence with a privately owned enterprise. His request for access was refused because the Immigration Service could not locate the desired correspondence via its electronic filing system. The journalist complained to the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman did not find that there were grounds for criticising the Immigration Service. He found it significant that it was not possible to locate cases via the electronic search system by entering the name of a company. He also attached major weight to information about the resources required if the Immigration Service had to manually unearth the correspondence with the enterprise: the Immigration Service would need more than one man-year to locate the correspondence manually. Finally, the Ombudsman found it important that the Immigration Service could not just give the journalist free access to the files as this would contravene the rules on confidentiality. (Case No. 2010-3082-601) 10-2. failure of Immigration Service to search for families of children arriving in Denmark unaccompanied A lawyer complained on behalf of a refugee child about, among other things, the Immigration Service’s failure to institute a search for the child’s ­maternal uncle after the child had arrived in Denmark unaccompanied. The lawyer referred to the Aliens Act, pursuant to which the Immigration Service was obliged to search for the child’s uncle as the only remaining relative after the death of the child’s parents. It followed from the provisions of the Act that a search for relatives should be instituted as quickly as possible after the child had arrived in the country and a representative for the child had been designated. While the Ombudsman was investigating the case, he became aware that it had been the practice of the Immigration Service not to institute the statutory search until the child had been refused a residence permit and was about to be deported. In addition, the Immigration Service informed the Ombudsman that it assumed it was sufficient to encourage the child to institute a search itself through the International Red Cross. 111