A 35-year-old Norwegian man was denied entry into the UK when his flight from Austria landed in London late last week. Tore Rasmussen was determined to present a “serious threat” because of his involvement with the anti-immigration organization Generation Identity (GI).
Newspaper Aftenposten reported that Rasmussen is part of the leadership in the British and Irish chapters of the organization, and he moved to London last fall. After a trip to Austria, he was stopped at passport control and handed a document a few hours later that denied him re-entry into Great Britain. He was ordered to return to Austria the next morning.
British authorities confirmed the incident, claiming they are blocking entry to people who are believed to pose “an actual, genuine threat to the society’s fundamental interests.” Several other right-wing radicals have been denied entry as well, in line with other extremists.
Rasmussen told Aftenposten he’s merely promoting “free and open debate on mass immigration and the shadowy side of multiculturalism.” He disagrees that he has “right-wing extremist opinions that don’t comply with British values.”
Jacob Aasland Ravndal of the University of Oslo’s center for research on extremism, places the GI movement within right-wing extremism. “They are extreme because they are anti-democratic and carry out demonstrations that border on being illegal,” Ravndal told Aftenposten. He said Great Britain has long carried out a practice of denying entry to extremists and that it has been boosted in recent months.
newsinenglish.no staff
