Directorate of Immigration: Norway will meet its quota for taking in refugees this year

Photo: Terje Pedersen / NTB

The Directorate of Immigration (UDI) states that Norway’s quota of 3,600 refugees will be met in 2021, in contrast to the previous year. Norway has picked up refugees from Rwanda to meet the quota.

“In Rwanda, we have picked out Congolese refugees in particular. The profile includes families with children and vulnerable women,” senior adviser Jonas Lea at the UDI told the newspaper Vårt Land.

The Solberg government decided that 3,000 quota refugees would come to Norway every year, but the quota was not met in 2020 due to the pandemic.

A total of 608 places were thus transferred to this year, UDI’s communications director Håkon Fenstad stated.

Up to the beginning of December, the UDI has granted entry permits to 3,151 quota refugees (so-called resettlement refugees).

According to Fenstad, two major operations in Rwanda and Lebanon were carried out to fill the last 457 places.

“Thus, we will fill the entire quota of 3,608 resettlement refugees this year,” Fenstad said.

Criticism from the FRP

Immigration and integration policy spokesman Erlend Wiborg in the Progress Party (FRP) thinks it is incomprehensible that the government prioritizes taking in a large number of refugees in the middle of a turbulent phase of the pandemic.

“We must have answers to what extent those who come are vaccinated and whether they will put further pressure on the health service,” Wiborg wrote in an email to NTB.

He believes that Norway should stop taking in all refugees until society is back to normal.

“Exposing the country to even more risk of infection and pressure on the health services is the last thing we need,” Wiborg added.

Source: © NTB Scanpix / #Norway Today / #NorwayTodayNews

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