Local uproar over asylum policy
Norway's largest municipalities have begun to protest asylum policies that are creating a homeless population. Refugees that are refused asylum but either cannot or will not return home are turned out on the street, without rights. Local governments decry the policy as inhumane, newspaper Dagavisen reports.
According to new policy asylum seeker lose the right to board and lodging at an reception center when their application is rejected. The government then defines them as being in the country illegally, and the refugees are only entitled to nominal emergency aid.
On August 25 Oslo's city councilor Margaret Eckbo wrote to ministers Dagfinn Høybråten, Erna Solberg and Laila Dåvøy, who oversee social, local government and family affairs. She asked for a meeting in order to clarify how the City of Oslo should handle people ejected from state asylum centers, but has yet to receive a reply.
"When they do not go home we cannot let them live on the street. No one can live on the street. I want to cover their expenses until they can travel home. Otherwise the state must keep them in dormitories," Eckbo told Dagsavisen.
"The policy is excellent if these people just went back home. But we also have some that are unreturnable. The state says we should just give them emergency aid, which is NOK 60 (USD 8.67) a day, but that is untenable," Eckbo said.
In Trondheim, Bergen, Stavanger, Kristiansand and Tromsø local governments have voiced despair and disbelief at the government's apparent disinterest in dealing with the consequences of the asylum policy.
"I am astonished that the tragic consequences of what can happen have not been considered. When they are thrown out on the street without the means to live, the path to committing crimes to survive is short," said deputy mayor Pia Svensgaard in Tromsø.
"We cannot have people being thrown out on the street without anything to live on or a place to go. If this happens here, we must help. The government must sort this out," said Bjarne Ugland, deputy mayor in Kristiansand.
Via Aftenposten News in English.
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