Record number of extraditions from Norway in 2016

Sylvi ListhaugImmigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug.Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB scanpix

In 2016, 8,078 persons who were staying illegally in Norway were extradited. That is fewer than the government’s target, but an increase on previous years.

‘It is about fighting crime and maintaining a safe population. Those who are staying illegally in Norway; we will find them and we will send them back to their country of origin’, said Immigration and Inclusion Minister (Innvandrings og Inkluderingsminister), Sylvi Listhaug, to NRK news.

The government aimed to extradite 9,000 people before the New Year 2016/17. At the end of November, the police extradited a total of 7312 persons who were staying illegally in Norway, which was 5% more than during the same period in the previous year.

The Police Immigration Service (PU) said in December that it had hardly come to achieving the government’s targets during the year.

When the overall figures from 2016 had been finalized, said the Development Manager, Morten Hojem Ervik, they showed that the low number of asylum seeker arrivals had meant that, in fact, fewer people had been returned to their country of origin than the figures suggest. By comparison to 2015, 2% more were extradited in 2016.

The immigration department hasn’t predicted an increase in the number of asylum arrivals for 2017, but the government’s goal remains the same.

28% of people who were deported in 2016 were criminals, which is somewhat less than the year before.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today