Per Sandberg fears Arbeiderpartiet’s (Labor Party) asylum liberalisation policies

Minister of Fisheries Per Sandberg Dublin TransfersMinister Per Sandberg (Progress Party). Photo: frp.no

Immigration Minister, Per Sandberg, says it will have ‘dramatic’ consequences for Norway if Ap win on the issue of residence for several unaccompanied minor, asylum seekers.

‘Now we have an agreement with Ap on some points, and that is very good. Clearly, many in Ap want to reverse their own policy, and grant residence to anybody who claims they are under the age of 18.

This could lead to a flood of asylum seekers to Norway, said the acting immigration minister, Per Sandberg, to Dagens Næringsliv newspaper.

Three former Ap ministers want to liberalise Ap’s policy, especially in the case of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers. In two weeks, Ap’s Youth League, (AUF) and several county branches, will call on the Ap congress to work toward making it easier than it presently is to provide permanent residence for those between 15 and 18 years old.

The Immigration Minister called this ‘naïve’.

‘When Norway and Sweden alone account for about half of all unaccompanied children who come to Europe, we need restrictive and strict policies to prevent them embarking on the perilous journey.

It is not kind, or human, to entice families to send children, who do not need asylum protection, on a long and perilous journey. What is human is that children remain with their family’, said Sandberg.

The stream of asylum seeking minors arriving in Norway from Afghanistan has almost completely stopped, according to figures from the Immigration Department (UDI). Only eight have arrived in the first quarter of this year. In 2015, the figure was over 3,500.