Rohde: Worried that escaped asylum seekers will go free

Photo: Politiinspektør Hanne Kristin Rohde Photo: Håkon Mosvold Larsen / NTB scanpix

The former top police Hanne Kristin Rohde is worried that people escaping from Norwegian asylum centers will be left to their own devices because the police give priority to forcibly returning of families. – She’s wrong,  the police responds.

– I fear the emergence of groups of young men who commit serious crimes, who we neither are able to handle here or get  sent out, says Rohde to the local newspaper Klassekampen.

2,203 people  in total have escaped from Norwegian asylum centers last year, compared to 1,849 the year before. 80 percent of those who disappear are men. Rohde’s fear is that a hidden and partly outcast existence in the shadow of Norwegian society can lead them into crime.

She believes the desired targets for returns may lead to the police getting their priorities wrong.

– Sometimes I wonder if we send out the wrong people just to get numbers that looks good. It is easier to evict families with children, and then the police may be forced to prioritize what provide a high number of evictions most easily, she says.

Section chief Jan Erik Thomassen Police Directorate rejects this, saying they prioritize people who have been sentenced.

– Contrary to what she says the police prioritize the expulsion or deportation of individuals who have been sentenced, he said.

Andreas Adolfsen, the union leader for Norwegian Police Federation of Police Immigration also disagrees with Rohde and says efforts to track down people who disappear from reception centers, have been a priority in recent years.

 

Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today