UDI closes down five more asylum receptions
UDI announces that the contract with five asylum receptions with a total of 850 seats will be terminated shortly
– The need for recption places is still declining, says Director in the Directorate of Immigration (UDI), Borghild Fløtre
The receptions terminated are Drammen asylum reception with 150 seats, Kvæfjord asylum reception with 150 seats, Hurdal leirsted asylum reception in Akershus with 155 seats and Mandheimen asylum reception with 170 seats in Tinn. Additionally the transit centre in Våler is also shut down.
When this round of closures is completed, the immigration authorities still have 5,500 seats available at 40 asylum receptions. additionionally there is still an arrival centre in Østfold.
In the peak in the winter of 2015/2016, UDI possesed close to 39,000 reception and emergency seats.
The occupancy of asylum reception centers is more than halved this year – at the beginning of January, 13,500 people were living in Norwegian reception centres. By the end of last week, that number was reduced to 5,900. About a third of the inhabitants are less than 18 years old.
About 1,500 of the residents have been given a final rejection and are required to leave Norway, while 2,600 people have been waiting for a response to their asylum application or waiting for a response to a complaint after being refused. The rest are waiting to be settled in a municipality.
This year, 3,236 people have applied for asylum in Norway, according to numbers published by UDI at the end of October. Recently 30 asylum seekers have come to Norway every week on average.
© NTB Scanpix / Norway Today
