The government is setting up a new post to force deportation of more people to North and West Africa.
‘Although the influx from the central Mediterranean has declined in recent months, the potential for arrivals of migrants from North and West Africa to Europe is still high, and the current flow across the western Mediterranean is increasing.
It is therefore desirable to prioritise work towards in this area to a greater extent’, explained the State Secretary for Immigration and Integration, Torkil Åmland of Fremskrittsparti (Frp), in an email to Vårt Land newspaper.
The government budget statement for 2018 said that ‘the police should emphasise (…) strategic conditions, such as deportations that give a signal, and may affect future inflows, wrote the Ministry of Justice.
The Ministry of Justice confirmed to Vårt Land that there are currently 13 special expulsion cases for deportation at ‘relevant Norwegian embassies’.
The number of forced deportations has been at approximately 9,000 per year in recent years. For 2018, it has been decreased to 7,500.
Senior consultant, Jon Ole Martinsen of the Norwegian Organisation for Asylum Seekers (NOAS), sees a need for a special department, but not that the government maintains the size of the Police Immigration Unit when the target figure drops from 9,000 to 7,500.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
