In February only 240 people applied for asylum in Norway, less than half of the number of asylum applicants in February last year. So far this year 649 persons have applied for asylum. This are 43 percent fewer than in the first two months in 2015 and the lowest number of asylum seekers in over 20 years.
We have to go back to 1993 to find a lower number. That year about 500 asylum seekers arrived in Norway in the first two months of the year, according to figures the news service NTB has obtained from the Directorate of Immigration (UDI).
The reason for the drop in numbers is that it is difficult to move northward in Europe at present.
– The reason is the border controls both in Norway, Sweden, Denmark and other countries in Europe. We now realize that this means that many of them will be stuck in Greece, without any immediate way of moving on, the director of the asylum department in UDI, Hanne Jendal, says to the newspaper Aftenposten.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
