Russia among top three recipients of rejected migrants from Norway
Russia is one of the countries that have received the highest numbers of people that Norway has rejected giving asylum to.
Since 2013 Russia has accepted 987 asylum seekers from Norway.
In 2015 alone, Russia accepted the return of 588 deported foreigners. Half of them did not have Russian citizenship. Only Italy and Albania received more rejected asylum seekers from Norway, Aftenposten writes.
284 of the foreigners Russia accepted, were people who had had their application for asylum to Norway rejected by Norwegian authorities. 300 were either expelled or deported from Norway.
Until now, Russia has been one of the countries that Norway has been one of the easiest countries for Norway to negotiate with about return of migrants. But during the last couple of weeks, several incidents have put the good relations on a test.
- January 19th: A Norwegian bus drove from the camp outside Kirkenes to Murmansk with 13 returned asylum seekers.
- January 21st: Three Russian mini-busses came to the camp, but returned back to Russia without any asylum seekers.
- Janaury 22nd: No busses came. Police Immigrations service claims it is “due to lack of busses.”
- January 23rd: Police Immigration Service said nobody was to be returned because data trouble and lack of personnel on Russian side.
On Tuesday this week Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the country would not accept any migrants to be sent back to Russia from Norway because they might have given false information when entering Russia.
Norwegian and Russian authorities had discussions on the migrant situation earlier this week, but it is uncertain when the talks will be resumed. For the moment, the situation looks to be in a deadlock.
1000 migrants from Russia missing in Norway
Nearly 1000 of the 5500 asylum seekers that crossed the border from Russia to Norway last autumn have disappeared from refugee centers, NRK reports.
According to the Norwegian Directorate for Immigration, 3913 of the refugees that came to the border town of Kirkenes, are living in reception centers or care centers. 445 have left the country, either voluntarily or by the police. 937 have disappeared and probably gone into hiding in Norway.
