The prime minister of Denmark has promised a nationwide crackdown on “parallel societies”, where migrants live off the state and make no effort to integrate.

‘Denmark should be open to those who can and will [work],’ Lars Løkke Rasmussen declared, adding that the nation’s borders “should be hermetically sealed for those who do not want to”, local media reported.

Speaking at the Venstre Party’s national assembly on Saturday, the prime minister said that whilst the government has made great strides in stemming mass migration, the country must now work to tackle the existence of ghettos in which residents reject Danish values and “neither respect nor participate in our democracy”.

Asserting that Danes are wanting to shut the borders as a result of the wealth of problems brought by mass immigration from the third world, Rasmussen said the country must be more selective in granting citizenship to aliens.

“In the past, we have issued Danish passports to some people who do not behave Danish,” he told the audience in Vejle.

“Unless we crack down on parallel societies and the counter-cultures within, we risk the general public feeling negatively towards foreigners.

“That’s never how it should be. In future, the passports we issue will be to people who have chosen to belong to Denmark.”

So second and third generation migrants are angrier according to this study… https://t.co/0qBJaMYtyo — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) July 28, 2017

The prime minister announced that a ministerial committee has been put to work investigating how to counter “parallel societies”, and stated that the government will not shy away from targeting “problem areas” directly.

“Previously the country has taken broad measures which were rolled out all across Denmark,” he said.

Noting that “in order to get tough on Muslim schools, this meant all schools were having to pay a price,” Rasmussen pledged to target policies specifically in “urban areas” the committee identified as having problems.

At the national assembly, it was also announced that Denmark will join a number of European countries including Austria and France in introducing a ban on full-face coverings which includes the niqab.

Former Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen voiced support for the development, which he said “sends a good signal to the whole population that when you live in Denmark you follow Danish norms and traditions”.