legal and social conditions for asylum seekers and refugees in ...

NORWAY
LEGAL CONDITIONS
The legal basis
– The Geneva Convention of 1951 and New York Protocol of 1967;
– The Act No. 64 of 24 June 1988 regarding the entry of foreigners into the Kingdom of Norway
and their presence in the realm (the Aliens Act);
– The Decree of 21 December 1990 pursuant to the Aliens Act, as subsequently modified (the
Aliens Decree);
– The Act No. 81 of 13 December 1991 regarding social services (The Norwegian Social
Assistance Act);
Amendments to the Aliens Act and Aliens Decree have been recently passed with respect to the
entry into force of the Schengen Agreement in Norway in the course of 2001 and the
establishment (January 2001) of an Appeal Board to process appeal cases instead of the Ministry
of Justice.
Norway is not a EU member state and thus it is not a party to the Dublin Convention. However,
alongside with Iceland, it is currently negotiating a parallel agreement to the Dublin Convention
with the European Union.
Refugee status
The only kind of refugee status granted in Norway is Convention status and Section 16 of the
Aliens Act refers to the definition of a refugee mentioned in the Geneva Convention.
Persons granted refugee status are issued with a residence permit valid for one year and
renewable annually. After three years, they are entitled to permanent residence.
Quota refugees
According to an agreement with UNHCR, Norway agrees to receive 1,500 quota refugees per
year for the period 1998-2000. This arrangement is flexible, in that more refugees will be
accepted in one year if the number is correspondingly reduced in other years. The Norwegian
Government may decide on the composition of these groups on the basis on UNHCR's written
recommendations. Based on this agreement, Norway received 1,480 quota refugees in 1999. The
largest groups were from Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Croatia and Ethiopia.
Most quota refugees are granted Convention status, although spouses are sometimes granted a
residence permit on humanitarian basis.
Other types of residence permit
Residence permits for humanitarian reasons
Pursuant to Section 8(2) of the Aliens Act, a residence permit may be granted “on the grounds of
strong humanitarian considerations” or when the asylum seeker has "a strong attachment to the
realm”. In practice, this applies to a person who cannot be returned to his/her country of origin for
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Norway