Norway will sharpen passport law to prohibit entry to suspected foreign fighters

Anundsen overrule the police and forced through asylum reboundsMinister of Justice and Public Security Anders Anundsen ( Progress Party ).Photo regjeringen.no

The government is proposing stricter passport rules to make it easier to stop people who are suspected of travelling as foreign fighters, or who may participate in terrorist acts. The Bar Association (Advokatforeningen) is critical of the proposal.

In a proposal that the government circulated in November, they suggested that it should be possible to refuse to issue visas, or to revoke passports and ID documents, if there are reasons to suspect someone is in transit to a conflict zone, reported NRK news.

‘The main proposal is that the standard of proof for withholding travel documents will be lower than is the case today’, said the Minister of Justice, Anders Anundsen.

The director, Marius Oscar Dietrichson, defended the group in the Bar Association who are not thrilled with the new proposal.

‘Before, it was the case that for one to be punished for misdeeds, one had to have committed those misdeeds, and this was prosecuted on the basis of evidence.

Now we are moving in the direction of pursuing suspects on the basis of an assumption that in the future, at some point, they may want to do anything wrong. So this is a difference we find critical’, said Dietrichson.

The consultation deadline for the proposed amendment is February 17, 2017.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today