Norway pledged to accept refugees – no one has come

RefugeesRefugees.Photo: pixabay.com

Norway pledged to the EU to accept 1,350 Syrian refugees from Greece, Italy and Turkey this year.

However, so far no one has come, according to the most recent overviews of the European Commission, dated 14 and 19 October.

In December last year, Parliament adopted the Norwegian contribution to the EU program to relocate refugees from Greece and Italy, to help ease the burden on the two countries. The pledge included a total 1,500 asylum seekers, with 750 arriving this year and 750 arriving in 2017.

According to the EU list, Norway has so far made 170 spaces available – however none of them have been filled.

In addition, in April, Norway promised to take 600 Syrian refugees from Turkey, as part of the refugee agreement between the EU and Turkey. Yet still, six months later, noone had arrived.

State Secretary Vidar Brein-Karlsen told NTB that there have been challenges related to the implementation of the relocation program and the withdrawal of quota refugees from Turkey.

– We are working on this. We have said that we should accept 600 Syrians from there, and we are about to do so. Several withdrawals commissions have already been carried out, he said.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today