“There is a very different feeling among at least urbanised Danes, who see these prosecutions as unnecessarily punitive,” said Ian Manners, professor of European politics at the University of Copenhagen.

“In a different climate the cases would have been dropped – in any other country it would impossible to prosecute, imaginable in Hungary perhaps,” he said, adding that some senior officials have welcomed citizens’ assistance in simply getting refugees through Denmark as fast as possible to cut down the numbers seeking asylum.