Listhaug strengthens UDI in order to uncover asylum trickery

Sylvi Listhaug waggingSylvi Listhaug (Progress Party).Photo regjeringen.no

Many asylum seekers have tricked their way to a residence permit, according to Immigration and Integration Minister Sylvi Listhaug. Now these are to be brought to light and sent away from Norway,   P4 reports.

In the budget for next year  the government proposes to strengthen the Directorate of Immigration (UDI) by continuing to set aside for 177 million for procedures in the Directorate, although the number of asylum seekers arriving in Norway has decreased from 31,000 people last year to just over 2,000 people this year.

In addition, the grant for the Immigration Appeals Board (UNE) will be increased by 15.7 million. The money will be used for bringing down the queue of pending cases, modernizing the ICT system and in revocation cases – cases  where information  indicate that persons who have obtained a residence permit may have lied in their application.

– We know there is a number of people who have tricked us. We want to revoke the residence permits of those people, so that those who have lied to us have to leave Norway,  Listhaug says to P4.

She thinks the 177 million kroner they now proposes will come in handy.
– This will provide UDI  with the capacity to prioritize both family reunification and revocation cases, she says.

UDI director agrees

– If next year we get to keep more resources than the decline in the number of asylum seekers would suggest, it is the clear that we will be able to put in more capacity to catch those who have cheated us or are trying to cheat us, UDI director Frode Forfang says.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today