A unanimous executive committee in Lødingen, northern Norway, gave a thumbs-down to a new asylum reception centre on 10 April. Ten days later, the municipality received a centre nevertheless. The ROBEK municipality is one of 24 municipalities that are now to receive 3,600 asylum seekers by 1 August.
UDI this week awarded contracts for 24 new asylum reception centres distributed across five regions. Each centre is to have 150 places. The background is that the Directorate expects a sharp increase in the number of asylum seekers in 2026. The contracts run for three years, with an option of 1+1 years.
The centres are to be ready between 20 May and 1 August. This means that several municipalities have only five weeks to build up health services, interpreting services and child welfare provision for hundreds of new residents.
– It will be challenging. They are to open here in five weeks, and it goes without saying that advertising positions and everything that goes with it within the deadline will be almost impossible, says Lødingen mayor Hugo Bongard Jacobsen (Labour Party) to NRK.
Lødingen municipality is on the ROBEK list, the state’s blacklist of municipalities that have lost control of their finances. Nevertheless, the municipality, with just over 2,000 inhabitants, is now to serve 150 asylum seekers with statutory services.
On 10 April, a unanimous executive committee said no to the establishment, inter alia on the grounds of strained municipal finances Blv. UDI awarded the contract to Hero Norge AS regardless. The municipality has no formal right of veto.
Narvik municipality received two contracts – a total of 300 asylum seekers distributed at Håkvik. Mayor Rune Edvardsen (Labour Party) believes the actual capacity is 150.
– To make such decisions over the heads of the municipalities is not good, Edvardsen says to the state broadcaster.
Local politicians in Narvik Centre Party are less conciliatory in tone. In an opinion piece in Fremover, they state that UDI has been clear in its message – local democracy does not decide in these matters Fremover.
In February 2025, UDI closed eight ordinary asylum reception centres. Among them were Lødingen and Kvitnes in Tjeldsund. The justification was lower arrivals of asylum seekers.
Now, just over one year later, centres are being opened in exactly the same municipalities – with new tenders, new contracts and the same operator, Hero Norge AS, in Lødingen.
UDI’s own projections show why the pendulum swings so quickly: in 2025 the Directorate received 2,421 ordinary asylum applications from countries other than Ukraine. For 2026, the planning figure is set at 4,000 – almost a doubling.
In addition, 13,300 new applications for temporary collective protection from Ukrainians are expected, as well as 85,000 applications for extension of existing protection.
UDI also operates with an “upper range of possibilities” of 7,000 to 10,000 ordinary asylum applications, if the situation in Syria, Afghanistan or Eritrea deteriorates further.
Region north: Tjeldsund, Narvik (two centres), Lødingen, Senja, Fauske Region central: Heim, Meråker, Sunndal Region east: Indre Østfold, Sel, Asker, Ål, Søndre Land, Nord-Fron, Gjerdrum Region south: Evje og Hornnes, Skien, Holmestrand, Farsund (two centres), Tønsberg, Porsgrunn Region west: Voss
Heidi Bottolfs, Director for reception and return at UDI, tells NRK that the state provides grants intended to cover the municipalities’ expenses for statutory services.
– We try to maintain close and good dialogue with the municipalities. In addition, there is a host municipality grant. It secures and covers the expenses that municipalities have when it comes to the services they are obliged to provide, says Bottolfs.
The mayors in Lødingen and Narvik are not convinced. In Tjeldsund, by contrast, mayor Robin Ridderseth is positively disposed towards the establishment.