Norway’s top authority revokes a decision by a city to only take Ukrainian refugees
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/04/2024 (893 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A top authority in Norway said Tuesday that it was revoking a decision by a city council to only take Ukrainian refugees and not others, saying it was contrary to the Norwegian Constitution and the Scandinavian country’s discrimination laws.
The office of the Country Governor of Oslo and Viken had asked the right-leaning municipal council in Drammen to explain its February decision that it would be easier to integrate Ukrainians in the society. The governor said the municipal decision “involves direct discrimination based on nationality.”
The council had faced wide criticism in Norway after deciding on Feb. 13 to only accept Ukrainian refugees. Up to a third of the population of Drammen are immigrants or have immigrant background.
Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, who heads a center-left government, had said that Norway’s 357 municipalities cannot decide for themselves which refugees they accept — only how many they can take in. He condemned the municipal decision and said it was “not legal.”
Drammen is ruled by a majority made up of the conservative Hoeyre, the Progress Party, the Christian Democrats and the small Pensioners’ Party.
Kristin Surlien, a senior member of Hoeyre in Norway’s fifth largest town, told the local newspaper Drammens Tidende that the ruling was a surprise. “We take note of the decision and will discuss the way forward both internally in the Conservative Party and between the four parties.”
Figures earlier provided by Drammen said there were some 103,000 inhabitants in the municipality in 2023. Of those, nearly a third — roughly 31,000 — are either immigrants or are Norwegian-born citizens of immigrant parents.
According to Norway Statistics, there are mainly Poles, Lithuanians, Iraqis, Pakistanis and Somalis. The Scandinavian country of 5.5 million people has since 2022 given shelter to 70,800 Ukrainians, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration.
In 2023, there were 877,227 migrants in Norway, mainly from Poland, Lithuania, Sweden, Somalia and Germany, according to official statistics.