Norway: Refugees and racist politics
01 January 1996
In the local elections in Norway on 9 September 1995, the rightwing Progress party almost doubled its support winning 12 percent of the vote. The Progress Party centred their electoral campaign on the immigrant issue, but did not really succeed with their strategy. Later it was discovered that one of the leading members of the party attended a racist meeting. This was first met with criticism from the leader of the Progress Party, Carl I Hagen, but not with expulsion. Hagen instead took the opportunity to exploit the immigrant issue in the party's campaign. The strong criticism from other political parties and in the mass media followed by accusations of racism gave Hagen and The Progress Party the attention he and his party needed. He claimed repeatedly that different cultures cannot live together, this was "proved" in the gangfight which caused the death of a young boy.
The official policy towards refugees is becoming increasingly severe. Only four asylum seekers arrive in Norway a day, the lowest number in 10 years. During the first nine months of 1995, 1009 persons came as asylum seekers to Norway, compared to an average of 6-8000 a year at the end of the eighties. 3,379 asylum seekers arrived last year, while Sweden received 20,000. The drop in asylum-seekers arriving in Norway is due to carrier sanctions, the first "safe" country rule, and the need to have a visa.
The new official guidelines for the reception of refugees put emphasis on repatriation, and on humanitarian aid instead of receiving them in Norway. It is also confirmed in the National Assembly that refugees who get the permission to stay, may only remain on a temporary basis and it is up to the authorities to decide whether it is safe to go back or not. With refugees given the right to stay in Norway, before the new rules, were given permission to stay for as long as they wanted.
The official policy reflects repeated accusations in the newspapers and from racist organizations cited in the mass media, claiming that refugees abuse the social welfare system, get free houses and expensive furniture, that they refuse to learn norwegian and that they do not want to integrate.
Research and official documents show however that these are empty accusations, and that refugees in Norway do want to work, but are not given the opportunity. While unemployment statistics show that on a general level the unemployment rate is going down, it is rising for the immigrant groups. For the population in general the registered unemployment rate fell from 5.6% to 5.2% from February 1994 to February 1995. For the African population the unemployment rate is 26%, for Asians 20.6%, and for Latin-Americans 17.3%.
Other elements of importance in this picture are: the lack of medical assistance for refugees suffering from torture and war traumas; lack of education in the immigrant childrens' maternal language at school, which handicaps them in the educational area; numbers of state initiated short contract jobs, which are characterized by their lack of rights and extremely low pay.
The government has decided to construct a new detention centre for asylum seekers connected to the main airport at Gardermoen. The transit camp (transit reception), the police unit, the custody and detention centre will together form a new centralized control of asylum-seekers and foreigners. The centre will be ready in 1998.
The centre will contain as follows: a large reception centre for asylum seekers, which will give room for up to 500 asylum seekers; a central police unit for the east part of Norway, to investigate the cases; the same police unit will have a countrywide responsibility for the transport out of the country for those denied the right to stay; a police custody/prison/detention centre close to the reception centre and a police unit for those asylum seekers who have given a false identity; a detention centre for those waiting for a decision on their applications f