Row looming over Somali child reconditioning trips
COPENHAGEN, 7 FEB 2003--Following Integration Ministry warnings last week that parents could face cash cuts in welfare payments, reconditioning trips for Somali children who become Westernized are under the spotlight.

Somali immigrants in many Western countries, including Denmark, are punishing their children for becoming ‘too Westernized,’ by sending them on so-called reconditioning trips to Somalia, Somaliland, and other Muslim countries in the region. In many cases, desperate Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian-speaking children of Somali heritage had appealed to consulates in Ethiopia, Kenya, and Saudi Arabia to beg for help to come ‘home.’