It is no longer only the UN and aid organisations that are allowed to propose which foreigners should be sent to Norway as quota refugees. An amendment to the regulations by the Labour government gives four trade unions a say in the matter.
An amendment to the Immigration Regulations concerning which bodies have the right to submit proposals for immigration to Norway was adopted by the Ministry of Justice and Public Security last week. The amendment entered into force on 28 August.
The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) is now required to allow Norwegian trade unions to put forward their own candidates for the quota of what are now commonly called resettlement refugees. These are foreigners who have been selected to be flown to Norway for resettlement.
According to the circular from UDI, following the amendment to the regulations, «it is desirable to strengthen access to international protection for trade union representatives».
The amendment is being introduced at the initiative of the Labour government. The decision has not been announced on the Ministry of Justice and Public Security’s website, but was described as a proposal in April.
– The Labour government believes it is necessary to strengthen international protection for trade union representatives who are subject to persecution. We must safeguard trade union rights and the right to form and participate in trade unions, said Minister of Justice and Public Security Astri Aas-Hansen at the time.
The addition to the regulations is formulated in general terms, so that it is up to the ministry to determine which trade union organisations may, at any given time, take part in deciding which trade union refugees are granted a state-funded stay in Norway.
It is the same ministry that has the final say in the selection.
The organisations that are so far permitted to propose their own refugees are LO, Unio, Akademikerne and Yrkesorganisasjonenes Sentralforbund (YS).
Resettlement refugees are defined by UDI as persons who are registered with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), but who cannot be provided with a durable solution in the country where they are located and are therefore offered resettlement in a third country.
The size of the annual quota is already politically determined, while the Ministry of Justice and Public Security (JD) decides which main groups of refugees are to be received.
In addition, the number of private organisations that can favour their own interests from the larger group of people with international refugee status is now being increased.
Department Director Hilde Foss in the Department of Immigration at the Ministry of Justice and Public Security. (Photo: Private/LinkedIn)
The department director who announces the amendment to the regulations on behalf of the Ministry of Justice and Public Security is Hilde Foss. She holds a master’s degree in social anthropology from NTNU and studied Middle Eastern studies, including Hebrew and Arabic, at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She later served as an observer in Hebron in the West Bank for TIPH, an observer mission funded by the member countries Norway, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Turkey and Denmark.
The senior adviser responsible for the matter at the ministry is Stine Münter. She is a sociologist from UiO and has a background working at an asylum reception centre in Tana, with the observer mission in the Mostar region of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and at the Immigration Appeals Board (UNE).
