Baltic and Nordic Region

Baltic and Nordic Headlines

A summary of asylum and refugee-related stories in regional media.

Saturday 13 March to Monday 15 March 2010

Denmark

Large number of refugee children
The immigration authorities and NGOs are experiencing difficulties in keeping up with the increasing number of unaccompanied refugee children. 469 unaccompanied minor  asylum-seekers arrived in Denmark last year, of whom 337 were Afghans. This is twice as many as during 2008. According to the Border police in Southern Jutland, many are transported by human smugglers. A Red Cross spokesman says many of the children claim to have fled from Afghanistan out of fear for the Taliban and the prospect of being forced to become suicide bombers. The Liberal Party’s spokesperson on integration, Karsten Lauritzen, said that Denmark has a duty to accept the children ‘with open arms’. According to UNHCR, more than 6.000 Afghan children arrived in Europe in 2009 an increase of more than 64 per cent compared 3.800 applications by minors in Europe in 2008.
Politiken 13 March 2010 (in Danish)
Jyllands-Posten 13 March 2010 (in Danish)
Danmarks Radio 12 Mrach 2010 (in Danish)
Danmarks Radio 13 March 2010 (in Danish)

Finland

Majority of Finns reject increase in immigration
Finns are adopting a more critical attitude towards immigration, reports Helsingin Sanomat. A survey commissioned by the major daily newspaper and carried out by Gallup suggests that nearly 60 per cent of Finns do not want to see more foreigners in Finland. Only a few years ago, in 2007, half of Finns were ready to welcome more immigrants. Heikki Ervasti, a professor of Social Policy at the University of Turku, says that the survey marked a reversal of a trend of rising tolerance that had begun in the 1980s. He also points out that relatively few people actually have contact with immigrants. According to Said Aden, chair of the Finnish Somali League, the outcome of the survey was hardly surprising during a recession. One thousand persons were interviewed in the survey.
YLE 15 March 2010 (in English)
Helsinki Times 15 March 2010 (in English)
Helsingin Sanomat 15 March 2010 (in Finnish)
Turun Sanomat 15 March 2010 (in Finnish)
Aamulehti 15 March 2010 (in Finnish)
Hufvudstadbladet 15 March 2010 (in Swedish)

Maryam Rajavi seeks Finnish support for refugee camp
Iran's underground opposition leader Maryam Rajavi calls for Finland to to support Camp Asrafin, an Iranian refugee camp in Iraq. There are some 3 400 members of the Iranian resistance group residing in the camp under difficult circumstances. Rajavi, who on Friday visited the town of Turku in Finland, spoke about the Iranians’ situation with Archbishop Jukka Paarma. Rajavi leads the organization of Iranian exiles, NCRI, in Paris. Archbishop Paarma said he had plans to talk about the issue with some ministers during the weekend.
Turun Sanomat 12 March 2010 (in Finnish)

Norway

Directorate of Immigration closes down two reception centers
The Directorate of Immigration (UDI) closed down two reception centers for unaccompanied minors in Buskerud and Akershus. According to department director Siri Rustad at UDI, they are unable to keep empty reception centers running. She says that the reception system in Norway has to be flexible and that they have a responsibility of adapting capacity to demand. In this year's first two months, 151 asylum applications by unaccompanied minors were registered. That is less than half of the number of applications received during the same period last year. The closing of the centers is part of a planned reduction of about 250 transit seats for unaccompanied minor asylum-seekers in Eastern Norway.
Verdens Gang 12 March 2010 (in Norwegian)

78 asylum-seekers deported
On Saturday, the Police Immigration Unit (PU) deported 78 persons from Serbia and Macedonia who had had their asylum applications rejected. All were taken to a plane at Gardemoen, specifically chartered for this occasion. The deportation is the biggest in the history of PU. Information Officer Roar Hanssen at the PU said that they were rejected according to the so-called 48-hour rule and had not spent much time in Norway before they were deported. Police said that they have received a large number of asylum-seekers from Serbia, Montenegro and Macedonia recently. A potential explanation for this is the abolition of these countries' visa requirements for Schengen countries.
Aftenposten 13 March 2010 (in Norwegian)

Sweden

“Make an exception for refugee children”
Archbishop Anders Wejryd, Swedish Red Cross chairman Bengt Westerberg and President of UNICEF Sweden, Birgitta Dahl, demand in an op-ed in Svenska Dagbladet that Sweden must assume its responsibility and stop returning unaccompanied refugee children to EU countries where they face inhumane treatment. They mention Malta as an example. Children who come to Sweden via Malta have testified about substandard living conditions and violence and abuses by government agents. According to EU legislation, refugees’ asylum applications should be handled in the EU country they first came to, but the Dublin Regulations allow governments to make exceptions. Sweden is making a general exception for unaccompanied children who have arrived via Greece, but according to the debaters there are several countries that fail to meet the EU and international law requirements.
Svenska Dagbladet 14 March 2010 (in Swedish)
Dagens Nyheter 14 March 2010 (in Swedish)

Municipalities may be forced to accept refugee children
Government coordinator for unaccompanied children Björn Eriksson says, together with Tobias Billström, the Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy, that unless municipalities voluntarily accept refugee children, a legislation forcing them to do so may be appropriate. According to Eriksson, Sweden is receiving many more unaccompanied refugee children than expected. Approximately 2500 children arrive annually, while the system is structured to accommodate between 300 and 400 children. Negotiations on 850 places more are underway in several municipalities, while 60 new children arrive every week. Municipalities have been reluctant to accept unaccompanied minors. Björn Eriksson says that municipalities fear that the children will cost money and pose problems, although they could help change public attitudes.
Sveriges Radio 12 March 2010 (in Swedish)
Sveriges Television 12 March 2010 (in Swedish)

Ombudsman backs police on pepper spray at refugee wedding
The Swedish Parliamentary Ombudsman (Justitieombudsmannen) has ruled that there is no case to answer for the police officers who interrupted a wedding to arrest a 24-year-old groom at Malmö city hall, using pepper spray on him in the process. The man's wedding on Saturday December 19th in Malmö in southern Sweden was brought to an abrupt halt as police arrested the man, a refugee from Afghanistan wanted by the police after his application for asylum was rejected. The 24-year-old had remained on the run to avoid deportation and resisted arrest, aided by other guests at the wedding. The police officers then used pepper spray to disperse the crowd, which by then included the man's bride. The Swedish Migration Board has since confirmed that preventing the wedding was unnecessary as marriage to a Swedish citizen would not have any effect on the man's deportation as the decision had already been made.
The Local 12 March 2010 (in English)

Somalis concerned over new requirements for family reunification
Somalis are concerned about the strict requirements the Swedish Migration Board has put in place for their compatriots who want to be reunited with relatives in Sweden. According to the Migration Board the new passport requirements for relatives of Somalis already residing in Sweden are a mandatory consequence of two rulings of the Migration Court of Appeal. Somali passports are not accepted in Sweden, but exceptions have been made in reunification cases. Now the Migration Board makes rulings based on the interpretation that these exemptions could be removed. Farah Abdisamed Farah, Chairman of the Swedish Somali League (Somaliska riksförbundet), says that the disruption of reunifications is contrary to international law. He is also surprised by the fact that Sweden does not accept Somali passports, while several other Western countries do.
Skånskan 12 March 2010 (in Swedish)
Arbetarbladet 12 March 2010 (in Swedish)

UNHCR in the news

100.000 forced to flee in Somalia
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, over 100,000 Somalis have been forced to flee the fighting in the war-torn country since the beginning of the year. The refugee camp in Dadaab, Kenya, is already overcrowded,  with 270.000 inhabitants. UNHCR now fears that even more refugees will seek shelter in the camps due to the fighting in Somalia. Spokesman Andrej Mahecic said that UNHCR is extremely concerned by the deteriorating situation for civilians in Somalia, who again are exposed to fierce fighting in Mogadishu and elsewhere in the country. He also said that humanitarian aid organizations are unable to help many of the internally displaced because of fighting between rebels and government troops. A total of 1,4 million Somalis have been forced to flee, and 560,000 have sought refuge in other countries.
NRK 12 March 2010 (in Norwegian)

Mayor wants to vacate the capital
Mayor Abdurisaq Mohamed Nor urges all residents of the Somali capital Mogadishu to leave the city because of an imminent, long-awaited, military action by government troops. He says that all civilians should flee from the city's battle zones and move at least two kilometers away from town, so that civilian casualties can be avoided. About half of Mogadishu’s residents have already left the city after two decades of conflict. According to the UN Refugee Agency, about 33,000 persons have been driven away from their homes during the past six weeks. There are now approximately 1.5 million people displaced within the country. For several months, government leaders and the military talked about an upcoming strike to regain full control over Mogadishu. A BBC reporter says there are few civilians left in the high-risk combat areas, but that a large number of civilians are still in areas controlled by rebels. The Danish Foreign Ministry has long advised against all travel to Somalia.
Politiken 12 March 2010 (in Danish)

UNHCR bears no responsibility for the accuracy and content of the press summary, which is based on external news services and does not reflect the views of UNHCR.

External Relations Unit
UNHCR Regional Office for the Baltic and Nordic Countries, Stockholm
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