Police Immigration Unit must downsize

PUOSLO. Politiets utlendingsenhet PU. Photo: Heiko Junge / NTB scanpix

 

Police Immigration Unit downsizes by 60-80 persons

 

Up to 80 employees must leave the Police Immigration Unit, which is responsible for sending out foreigners illegally residing in Norway.

Downsizing is a consequence of the fact that the budget for the Police Immigration Service (PU) is expected to be some NOK 150 million less in 2017 than in 2016, writes Police Forum.

This year’s budget is anticipated to be a little over one billion.

Following the large increase of asylum seekers to Norway in 2015, PU was boosting its budgets both towards the end of 2015 and in 2016. This led to significant increase in staffing. But the tasks have been reduced as a result of fewer asylum seekers.

– We are now working closely with the police districts and the National Police Directorate with a downsizing in PU of around 60-80 positions. We assume that our workforce reduction will correspond to increase manpower in the police districts, PU boss Morten Hojem Ervik writes in an email to the Police Forum.

Despite fewer asylum seekers in the past year, the police have the same high figure for the number of deportations this year. The target for 2017 is 9,000 deportations.

© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today