Man charged with murder at asylum center

Police in Bergen had a refugee from Afghanistan in custody on Wednesday, charged in the murder of another man at an asylum center in the Fana district of Bergen A third person was also seriously injured in the violence that erupted at the center at midday on Tuesday. The dead man, a resident at the [...]

Krekar agrees to remain in prison

Mullah Krekar, the Islamic cleric who’s been under Norwegian protection for more than 20 years, has agreed to remain in prison for at least another eight weeks pending appeal of his recent conviction for making death threats. He’s using the time to write a book. Krekar has been a thorn in the side of Norwegian [...]

Krekar deportation talks resume

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari was in Norway this week for talks with Norwegian officials that included a pending deportation of Mullah Krekar, the Islamic cleric who’s been deemed a threat to Norway’s national security. Norwegian officials were once again unable, however, to extract the guarantee they need that Krekar, a former guerrilla leader in [...]

Liberal Party logs leap in popularity

Members of Norway’s small and, until recently, struggling Liberal Party (Venstre) could head into the weekend smiling. After months of poor showings in the polls, they jumped a relatively whopping 3.5 points in a new voter survey. If the results had been an election, Venstre would have won 14 seats in Parliament, compared to its [...]

Labour wins support for hard line on child refugees

Leaders of the Labour Party, which dominates Norway’s left-center government coalition, have been breathing a sigh of relief this week after seven of eight party chapters around the country voted down a proposal to let refugee children remain in Norway, even though their parents’ applications for asylum were rejected. The refugee children, called asylbarna in [...]

Paradox over fate of refugee children

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg has been hit from all sides over his refusal, at least so far, to halt the deportation of children whose parents were rejected for asylum in Norway. The paradox, however, is that while many voters want to let children who’ve been in Norway most of their lives remain in the country, [...]

Storm of support for refugee children

NEWS ANALYSIS: They’re called “asylbarn” in Norwegian, children of refugees whose applications for asylum in Norway have been rejected by immigration authorities. Debate over their fate has flared for years and now the Labour Party is under more pressure than ever to let both them and their families remain in Norway on humanitarian grounds. Around [...]

Two held in teenage refugee’s death

UPDATED: Police in Rogaland, western Norway, had one man in custody on Thursday, had arrested another by Friday and were seeking two others as well in the death of a teenager at the Dale Asylum Center Wednesday night. The teenage boy from Iran died after being stabbed in the chest. Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that [...]

Palestinian camp wins reprieve

A group of Palestinian refugees won’t have to break up the camp they set up in downtown Oslo to protest their plight as undocumented aliens in danger of being deported back to Gaza. City officials said they can remain, at least for the time being. The refugees have lived in tents next to the former [...]

Effort grows to revive ‘Nansenpass’

As government officials hail Norway’s famed explorer and humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen this year, refugees in Oslo wish they’d take more to heart Nansen’s efforts to provide stateless persons with rights and credentials. One teenager whose family fled Lebanon planned to confront Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg with a replica of a “Nansenpass,” the special “passports” for [...]

Immigrants and refugees opt to leave

Refugees who’ve been denied asylum in Norway are opting to leave voluntarily, in record numbers, while other foreigners who’ve been granted permanent residence are leaving as well. Many are moving on after having trouble finding  jobs or running into racism. The head of Norway’s immigration directorate UDI (Utlendingsdirektoratet), Ida Børresen, told news bureau NTB that [...]

Government drops refugee return centers

The Norwegian government won’t be building new centers to house rejected refugees after all. Justice ministry officials decided the centers would be too expensive. Pål Lønseth, state secretary in the ministry, said the government would instead put a priority on other measures aimed at expediting the return of those whose applications for asylum have been [...]

Immigrants come looking for work

Immigrants from the European Union (EU), the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand made up fully two-thirds of the roughly 50,000 persons who arrived in Norway from outside the Nordic area last year. Most were hoping to find a job. With Norway’s economy remaining strong at a time when other countries are suffering serious debt [...]

More refugees expected

Norwegian immigration authorities are bracing for a new wave of asylum seekers from Somalia and Eritrea, because of the drought and famine now gripping the east coast of Africa. Norway already receives a steady stream of refugees from the troubled area, but the drought now hitting the area known as Africa’s horn is the worst [...]

Gadhafi’s Ukrainian nurse ‘in Oslo’

One of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gadhafi’s infamous Ukrainian nurses is reported to be in Norway and applying for asylum, according to newspaper sources. Newspaper VG claims that a number of independent sources suggest that the Ukrainian nurse is Galyna Kolotnytska, who gained media attention last year as part of US embassy documents leaked by [...]

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