Refugees arrive at the Norwegian border crossing station
at Storskog on November 12, 2015
(AFP Photo/Jonathan Nackstrand)
|
Oslo (AFP) --- Norway said Tuesday it would start turning
back refugees without visas arriving from elsewhere in the
passport-free Schengen zone, particularly Sweden.
The move is part of a draft law containing a series of immigration
measures that the Oslo government says will make its asylum policy
"one of Europe's toughest".
The conservative minority last month gathered enough parliamentary
support from the centre and labour parties to adopt the measures.
Norway does not
belong to the EU but it is, like Sweden, a member of the Schengen
area which has no passport or immigration controls.
According to
Schengen rules, asylum seekers must apply for a visa in the country
they first arrive in, mostly Italy and Greece. But many instead move
on to the country they want to eventually settle in, often in
Europe's richer north.
Most of the 30,000
people asking for asylum in Norway this year have crossed the border
from Sweden.
Critics say the Norwegian move would place undue pressure on the
southern European arrival countries.
"Norway is
choosing an isolated policy, by refusing to see that if every country
in the Schengen area blocked refugees the same way, they would all
get stuck in Greece and Italy," Pal Nesse, senior advisor for
the Norwegian Refugee Council, told AFP.
But Norway's
Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug said the new law would actually
improve the lives of legal immigrants.
"We will have an asylum policy that will be among the toughest
in Europe," she told the NTB news agency. "And that is
completely necessary so that we can welcome those who come here,
settle them in and integrate them."
The new law also calls for welfare payments for asylum seekers to be
below those for Norwegian residents in order to make the country less
attractive; the expulsion of unsuccessful applicants; restrictions on
long-term residency permits and tougher rules on family members
joining successful asylum applicants.
No comments:
Post a Comment