The Directorate of Immigration (UDI) announced that 17 asylum reception centres across Norway will be closed down. Fewer asylum seekers coming to Norway have led to a superfluity of available capacity.
‘The reason for this is that the UDI has far too much capacity. There were 31,000 asylum applicants in 2015, compared to just 3,460 last year. That’s been a decline of over 27,000 asylum seekers’, said Regional Western Director at UDI, Stig Arne Thune, to NRK news.
Thune said that more asylum seekers had been granted residence permits.
Of the 17 centres being closed down, eight are regular reception centres. The remaining nine are for unaccompanied children.
UDI declined to list the centres on Thursday, but confirmed that they’ll include a centre for unaccompanied children at Skei in Jølster, in Sogn and Fjordane.
A total of 1,610 reception places will be reduced, of which 320 were reserved for unaccompanied children.
Thune said that if developments continue, he wouldn’t be surprised if more centres were closed
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today