Around half of the asylum seekers could be returned

UDI Logo, minor asylum seekersLogo UDI. Photo Norway Today Media

31,000 asylum seekers arrived in Norway last year. Of these, about half should be returned, the Directorate of Immigration (UDI) estimates.

In 2015  around three times as many asylum seekers  as usual came to Norway. The UDI director Frode Forfang said to NRK news that he believes it will be difficult to implement all the returns.

– The fact that we manage the task of returning asylum seekers who have been rejected, is  important in order to preserve the will to integrate those who have been granted recidency, he says.

Forfang writes in his blog that when they take stock at the end of the year, he calculates that somewhere between 12,000 and 15,000 asylum seekers might have been rejected.

The UDI is responsible for those who are willing to return voluntarily, whilst the Police Immigration Service (PU) conducts the forced returns.

– This year we have a requirement for 9,000 deportation, and to work towards implementeing what is being discussed is fully possible for us , says PU Director  Morten Hojem Ervik.

Integration and Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug says the return work is a daunting task.

– Thus, it is important to focus on putting in place the return agreements and return as many as possible of those who should not be here, but also try to get more people to return voluntarily. This work we must also intensify, she says.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today

 

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