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

Manifestly unfounded procedure
No such procedure has been established within the Norwegian system.
Normal determination procedure
First instance decisions are taken by the UDI on the basis of the police reports. From 1 July 2000,
this will be done on the basis of the written statement and the interview with the UDI (see above).
In the present arrangement, asylum seekers are not often re-interviewed at this stage, although
they might be, particularly if there still are unanswered questions regarding their identity. The
asylum seekers may themselves send amendments/corrections to the police interview to the UDI,
usually through the lawyer. At present, the average time required by the UDI to process a case is
eight months.
Appeal (current situation)
All negative decisions by the UDI – even those which refuse Convention status but grant
humanitarian status – may be appealed to the Ministry of Justice within three weeks of
notification. Again, these appeals do not have automatic suspensive effect and a separate
application for suspension must be filed. In most cases it is granted, but the authorities may deny
it if they consider the appeal to be manifestly unfounded. There has been a slight increase in the
amount of rejections of applications for suspensive effect.
The appeal procedure is an administrative one and applicants are not required to appear in
person. The appeal is reviewed by a separate Aliens Department within the Ministry of Justice.
The two legal sections of the Aliens Department consist of several offices, each one being
responsible for a particular geographical area.
The average time required at this second stage is approximately four months. In 1999, the
Ministry of Justice granted humanitarian status to 13.5% of the cases processed under the appeal
procedure. Convention status was not granted once.
If the case is not settled within a time frame of 15 months, starting from the date of the initial
police registration, the applicant will generally be granted a residence permit for humanitarian
reasons. This does not apply if the applicant has voluntarily delayed the processing of his/her
case or if the delay has been caused by other circumstances beyond the authorities’ control.
Exceptions from the rule can also be made when the authorities find it likely that the asylum
seeker will be able to return within the foreseeable future, because his/her claims for asylum are
based on circumstances that are deemed to be short-lasting.
If the appeal is turned down within the time frame, there is within the system no formalised
second appeal. Yet, in cases where vital new information presents itself after an appeal has been
rejected the asylum seeker might launch a motion to revert the negative decision. This will be
reviewed by the Ministry of Justice. It is also possible to have the asylum claims examined by the
judiciary system, but this is expensive. In most cases the courts will uphold the decision reached
by the Ministry of Justice.
Appeal (from 1 January 2001)
From 1 January 2001, an Appeal Board will replace the Ministry of Justice as the second instance
body under Norwegian refugee determination procedure. The Appeal Board will be an
independent body of the Ministry of Communal and Regional Government, headed by a director.
The Board will consist of several sections, each of them composed of a chairperson and four
members, designated by the Ministry of Communal and Regional Government, the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, the Norwegian Bar Association/Norwegian Legal Association and humanitarian
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Norway