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

to return to Kosovo or submit an application for asylum. At the time of writing (May 2000), the
Norwegian authorities have begun processing these applications.
At present there is no other group receiving temporary protection in Norway.
Rejection at the border
Under Section 27(1) of the Aliens Act, a foreigner may be refused entry into the country at the
border or within seven days following entry in the following cases:
– he/she does not have the required travel documents (passport, visa, etc.);
– he/she has been expelled from Norway or another Nordic country and is subject to a
prohibition of entry;
– he/she does not have the required work, residence or resettlement permit;
– he/she cannot justify having the necessary means to support his/her stay in Norway and pay
for his/her return journey;
– he/she has been sentenced previously (under certain conditions as defined in the Act) or there
are grounds for fearing that he/she may commit an offence punishable with imprisonment for a
term exceeding three months;
– he/she will probably enter another Nordic country from Norway, where he/she is likely to be
rejected because he/she is lacking the required documentation or for any other grounds;
– when consideration for national security or compelling social considerations make it
necessary.
However, according to Section 27(3) of the same Act, if a foreigner who does not meet the
conditions required to be allowed entry, claims asylum at the border or provides information
indicating that protection is needed, the border authorities must refer the case to the Directorate
for Immigration (UDI), which has the responsibility for making a decision on entry.
The UDI is a body of the Ministry of Local and Regional Government, but with regard to entry and
presence of aliens in Norway, it comes under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice. It has
recently been decided that the Ministry of Local and Regional Government shall assume
jurisdiction also in this respect.
According to Section 17 of the Aliens Act, the UDI can refuse entry to an asylum seeker only in
the following cases:
(a) if there are reasonable grounds for regarding him/her as a danger to national security; if
he/she constitutes a danger to the community following conviction for a particularly serious
crime; if he/she is in one of the situations mentioned in Article 1F of the Geneva Convention;
(b) if he/she has already been granted asylum in another country;
(c) if he/she has travelled to Norway on his/her own initiative after being granted protection in
another country, or after having stayed in a state or area where he/she was not persecuted
and had no reason to fear refoulement;
(d) if another Nordic state is obliged to accept him/her in accordance with the Nordic Passport
Control Convention;
(e) if asylum must be denied on the grounds of compelling social considerations.
The expression “compelling social considerations” can refer to various situations including a
mass influx of immigrants of such a scale that it would be impossible for Norway to absorb it,
or cases where the asylum seeker constitutes a danger for the security of another state.
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Norway