Norway has accepted 0.3% of asylum seekers in Europe

Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug.Photo: Gorm Kallestad / NTB scanpix

In the past year, Norway has received only 0.3 percent of people seeking asylum in Europe, according to Aftenposten newspaper’s calculation. Eight years ago, the percentage was 5.8.

 

From 2010 util 2015, an average of 810 asylum seekers came to Norway every month, but this figure increased to 2,540 people in 2015, when the flow of these seeking asylum increased through the autumn.

Since then, arrivals have fallen significantly, to 270 people per month in 2016, and 375 so far this year, according to figures from Eurostat.

The EU’s agreement with Turkey, and the new border controls in Europe are the main reasons for fewer asylum seekers arriving in Norway,’said Sylo Taraku, an adviser in the center-left think-tank, Agenda, to Aftenposten newspaper.

‘But we receive even less than the situation would suggest under normal circumstances, so you can’t escape from concluding that tightening the asylum seeking belt, and the signals that have been sent out from the government, have had an effect,’ said Taraku.

The share of 0.3% is lower than Denmark, which has historically been lower than Norway.

In total, 3,525 asylum seekers have come to Norway in the past year, fewer than Denmark, Sweden, and Finland. In relation to the population, Norway received 0.7 asylum seekers per 1,000 inhabitants in the past year, which is on a par with Denmark, but clearly below the EU average of 2.1.

Minister of Immigration, Sylvi Listhaug of Fremskritts parti (Frp), said she’s ‘pleased that many countries now reject asylum applications,and that Norway has a high rate of decline’.

 

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today