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Norway halts return of asylum seekers who entered via Russia Norway's asylum policy in chaos amid Russian intransigence
(about 17 hours later)
Norway has announced it is temporarily suspending its controversial return of migrants from Arctic Russia, following a request from Moscow. Norway’s attempt to deport hundreds of asylum seekers to Russia is in chaos after Moscow objected to the programme and politicians struggled to defend it in the face of criticism from human rights groups and the church.
“The Russian foreign affairs minister was in contact yesterday (Friday) with the Norwegian authorities on the subject of the return of asylum seekers via Storskog,” the foreign ministry said in a statement, referring to the Storskog border crossing, 400 kilometres (about 250 miles) north of the Arctic Circle. The temporary suspension of expulsions after Russia raised “security concerns” is a setback to Oslo’s attempts to plug the gap in its Arctic border and implement a strict clampdown on asylum.
Related: Norway tells refugees who used cycling loophole to enter to return to RussiaRelated: Norway tells refugees who used cycling loophole to enter to return to Russia
“Until further notice, there will not be any more returns via Storskog. The Russian border authorities want more coordination over these returns,” the statement added. It follows a week of confusion at a detention camp in Kirkenes, near the border, where scheduled expulsions were repeatedly postponed and refugees were briefly arrested and then freed while opposition leaders questioned the policy.
Speaking in Davos to Norwegian television channel NRK, Norwegian foreign affairs minister Borge Brende said the Russians had made the request citing “security reasons”. Nevertheless, 13 asylum seekers were deported by bus to Murmansk on Tuesday night. Among them was a Yemeni refugee, whose case has cast further doubt on the Norwegian government’s view that Russia is a safe destination for refugees. Norway does not send failed asylum seekers to Yemen because it is considered too dangerous.
Some 5,500 migrants – mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran – crossed from Russia into Norway last year, on the last leg of an arduous journey through the Arctic to Europe. Abdullah, 29, was taken to Murmansk, where he arrived early on Wednesday in temperatures nearing -30C. A temporary Russian visa that had enabled him to go north to claim asylum expired that day and after sleeping rough, Abdullah turned himself in to police. He was fined 5,000 roubles by a Moscow court on Friday and expelled from Russia, according to documents seen by the Guardian. He has 10 days to appeal.
Norway is not within the European Union, but is a member of the Schengen passport-free zone. Russia returns failed asylum seekers to their country of origin unless they have funds and a visa to go to a third country. Mohammad Ahsan Rashid, Abdulah’s lawyer in Oslo, said deportation to Yemen would mean “Norway is sending him straight to death”.
Many migrants arrived by bicycle as Russian authorities do not let people cross the border on foot and Norway considers people driving migrants across the border in a car or truck to be traffickers. Refugees applying for asylum in Russia face many obstacles, according to Yelena Burtina, of Grazhdanskoye Sodeistviye (Citizens’ Assistance) in Moscow. “If they manage to get through, usually they are refused anyway, judges normally side with the immigration services,” she said.
Oslo wants to close the loophole and in November 2015, the right-wing government decided that migrants who had been living legally in Russia, or had entered Russia legally, should be immediately returned there, on the basis that Russia is a safe country. The European court of human rights has criticised Russia for returning people to countries where they are at risk of being tortured or treated inhumanely. The court condemned Russia in October for deporting three asylum seekers to Syria.
Police police returned 13 migrants by bus to Russia on Tuesday. Related: Norway criticised over deportation of asylum seekers to Russia
Two similar operations were scheduled for Thursday and Friday but were then cancelled, for what officials said were logistical reasons. Norway’s immigration minister, Sylvi Listhaug, said on Thursday she would ask the country’s immigration directorate to check on the situation of Abdullah and another deported Yemeni refugee, but the agency does not track asylum seekers once they have been returned to Russia, a spokeswoman said on Sunday.
Several dozen migrants had been taken to the border town of Kirkenes ahead of their expulsion, but several fled and three were given shelter in a church. “We consider Russia a safe place to return to,. We can try to find out what happened to them, but there is not much we can do about it.”
Rights groups had expressed outrage at the migrants being forced to return by bike in winter, when temperatures in the far north regularly fall to minus 20C (-4F). Norway’s parliament rushed through legislation in November paving the way for deportations amid a panic that the country was unable to cope with the numbers seeking asylum via Russia. Some 5,500 came via the Arctic route in the autumn.
They also say that Russia has a poor record on dealing with requests for asylum. The move is part of a crackdown on asylum across Scandinavia, which critics have described as a “race to the bottom” as Europe’s northernmost countries struggle to cope with tens of thousands of people fleeing war and persecution in the Middle East, Asia and Africa.
The process can take years, during which applicants run the risk of being arrested and expelled to their country of origin, said Marek Linha, head of the Norwegian Organisation for Asylum Seekers (NOAS). Jon Ole Martinsen, senior advisor to the Norwegian Organisation for Asylum Seekers, said the country should lift the threat of deportation from those with temporary visas until the situation in Russia has been fully researched.
“It’s Russian roulette, because you have no guarantee of gaining asylum, you often have to pay bribes and you can have problems with the FSB,” Russia’s security service, Linha said. “We have heard rumours that people in Russia have been sent back to Syria this past month, and we know for certain they have been placed in prisons in very bad conditions.”
Out of roughly 5,000 Syrians who have filed for refugee status in Russia over the last six years, only two have been granted recognition, according to the figures from the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Related: Cutting aid in order to support refugees will allow extremism to thrive | Kiai, Nordlander, Hardh, Hammarberg, Engesland
Around 2,900 Syrians have been granted temporary protection, which campaigners say is insufficient. About 80 refugees, mostly from Syria and Afghanistan, are still awaiting deportation from the Kikenes camp. On Sunday they were allowed to seek police permission to leave the camp briefly, but the nearest town is 20km away and there is no transport. Refugees complained to the Guardian that there was insufficient food and no medicines.
Ahmed Isam, 26, a Sudanese student, wrote in a letter to Listhaug on Sunday that his treatment at the camp “reminds me of the many times I was arrested by the repressive Sudanese regime for my peaceful activism and for defending my rights and the rights of exploited people”.
Three refugees, including a pregnant woman, escaped from the camp on Wednesday and were given refuge in Kirkenes parish church. Police have told local media they may still break down the door but did apologise for strip-searching a woman who helped the escape. She and two others may still face a fine or up to two years in jail.
“It is astonishing that the government acts so brutally,” Atle Sommerfeldt, bishop of Borge, told broadcaster NRK. Olav Øygard, bishop of Nord-Hålogaland, said: “Human dignity is being violated. A person’s worth is infinite, no matter where they are from.”
Some 31,000 people applied for asylum in Norway in 2015, of whom 18,431 people received the right to permanent residence and 7,825 were refused, including 500 children.