Rejected asylum seekers do not pose any particular terrorist danger

StockholmTerrorist attacks in Stockholm 7 April 2017.Photo: Torstein Bøe / NTB scanpix

There is no reason to be especially aware of the terrorist danger of rejected asylum seekers, says Norwegian Organization for Asylum Seekers (NOAS).

Uzbeks Rakhmat Akilov (39), suspected to have committed the bombing in Stockholm before the weekend, was denied asylum last summer. Director in NOAS, Ann-Magrit Austenå, however denies that one should be pay particular attention to rejected asylum seekers as potential terrorists.

– There is nothing in history to suggest that it is a particularly susceptible group, she says to NTB.

She says terror is mainly carried out by people who have citizenship in the country they attack, and believes one should be concerned about the risk of radicalization and recruitment to terrorism more generally.

– The vast majority of asylum seekers have just fled conflict, war and terror. There is much greater danger from people who have a residence permit in the Western society, but that they experience and define themselves as being on the outside of it, she says.

Austenå says asylum application leads to depressive reactions and discouragement, rather than aggression.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today