COPENHAGEN, May 31: Denmark’s parliament passed a controversial plan on Friday to limit immigration after a long and heated debate.

The centre-right government’s bill, making it harder to win asylum and cutting welfare to immigrants, was passed with the votes from the vehemently anti-immigrant Danish People’s Party (DPP).

The DPP became the third largest party in parliament in November’s election on a anti-immigrant campaign after the September 11 attacks on the United States.

The law, which Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen says could be a model for European nations, was passed just days after France and Germany made a joint appeal to tighten European immigration in an effort to prevent Europe’s far right from exploiting the issue at the ballot box.—Reuters