The Ap in Bergen believes Norway should receive 5,000 quota refugees from the UN every year for the next five years.
At the same time, the local party are attacking what many perceive as a sharp tone from the Ap in the immigration debate.
“During the annual meeting, many people were concerned and upset about the rhetoric that has taken place recently,” said Lubna Jaffery, Deputy Head of Bergen Ap, to Bergens Tidende newspaper.
The local council adopted a resolution this weekend which stated that Norway should receive 5,000 quota refugees annually over the next five years. By comparison, an overview that NTB news received from the Ministry of Justice showed that 1,620 quota refugees came in 2014, 2,620 in 2015, and 3,120 during each of the following two years. In 2018, it is planned that Norway will receive 2,120 UN refugees.
The government platform leaves it open to increase the number of quota refugees if asylum arrivals remain. Also, Ap’s leader, Jonas Gahr Støre, believes Norway should increasingly emphasise taking in quota refugees from the UN, but he has previously denied that it is appropriate to receive as many as 5,000 annually.
Jaffery rejects the notion that the decision by Bergen’s Ap could lead to more people arriving at Norway’s borders.
“The 5,000 we will annually invite are people who have already been cleared through the UN system. They will not be people who appear on our border. These are people who are in refugee camps and who are in need of protection”, she said.
© NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today
