In Norway, Just One Per Cent Of Migrants Arriving At Northern Border Granted Asylum

In northern Norway only one percent of migrants who crossed the border from Russia have been granted asylum.

Norwegian media VG reports just 67 who made the journey across Russia to the northern most border of Norway were accepted as legitimate asylum seekers by the authorities of the Scandinavian country. A report from the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) have revealed that last autumn a total of 5500 migrants crossed the Norwegian-Russian border at Storskog in Finnmark via the so-called “Arctic route.”

The numbers slowed in November due to the extreme winter conditions but at least 3,500 migrants were left waiting for their claim of asylum to be processed. Most of the migrants waiting sit day by day in various reception centres across the country primarily in the northern region of Finnmark.

The 67 who were granted asylum are predominantly Syrian. They have not been granted a permanent residence but rather a temporary one. The UDI workers have been instructed to prioritize cases that will likely be refused asylum in order to deport those who are int he country illegally as soon as possible and save costs in housing and feeding them while their applications are being processed. Many of the Syrians and other legitimate refugees have not even had their cases look at yet since authorities believe they will likely stay regardless.

The agency also said that they have no comment about how long the wait will be for migrants who have not received a response from them. They say that they have at least 24,000 asylum applications all across Norway and that their goal is to come to decisions on at least 21,000 of them before the end of the year. A spokesman told media that if not more migrants come this year they will still have around 3000 applications to go through but thought the idea of no more migrants coming was very unrealistic.

For those rejected by Norway the story is very different. 1,933 migrants in total were denied asylum, with the majority deciding to stay in neighbouring Russia as long as they were able. 977 migrants were deported to Russia by Norwegian authorities,while 539 cases were dropped entirely because the migrant either did not turn up for their interview or chose to withdraw their asylum claim to go somewhere else. 415 of the migrants were refused even an application for asylum as they likely did not come from countries recognized by Norway as legitimate for the application. Two further migrants claimed they had tried to claim asylum in another country before they came and simply preferred Norway.

Migrants who have been approved for deportation to Russia have often attempted to flee authorities in the North of Norway with one case involving “refugees welcome” volunteers trying to drive off with migrants who were scheduled to be deported as Breitbart has reported, and many others who have been deported to Russia only to end up finding out Russia doesn’t want to let them in either.