BRUSSELS / OSLO (VG) After the EU now introduces collective protection for Ukrainian refugees, a Norwegian decision may come in a very short time, according to Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl (Sp). More than one million Ukrainians are on the run, according to the UN.
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On Thursday, she attended the union’s meeting of justice ministers. There, 27 EU countries agreed to introduce temporary, collective protection for the Ukrainian population. Such a scheme means that Ukrainian citizens receive temporary residence for up to three years, without individual assessment.
– Norway is also prepared to provide protection. We have said that we are ready to assist, and we are now working intensely to follow the details of this so we get an orderly and good arrangement, which will provide help, says the Minister of Justice to VG in Brussels.
She says that Norway is now also upscaling the Norwegian government’s capacity to receive refugees.
– – The government is happy that the European countries have come together and agreed to show solidarity and accept these people, she says.
Mehl adds that the government will return quickly with a decision on collective protection, but asks to study the EU’s decision in detail first.
Takes 1000 at short notice
– How many refugees can Norway receive?
– At short notice we can receive 1000 refugees. And the capacity gets bigger, the longer it takes. WE work intensively to strengthen the reception capacity. Then many around Norway have signaled that they want to open their doors and homes, says the Minister of Justice.
– The government wants to help. We are ready to receive people who come, even though there is not such a large influx now. The greatest burden is on neighboring countries. And it is up to them to ask for assistance, she says.
Similar scheme in the 90s
Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre (Labor Party) said in his statement in the Storting on Thursday that a similar national scheme was introduced in Norway during the Balkan War in the 1990s.
– And there are good reasons to use this scheme also during the Ukraine crisis, he said.
More Norwegians will travel to Poland to bring refugees to safety in Norway. But Ukrainians can now only travel visa-free to Norway, if they have a biometric passport.
Missing biometric passport
Many Ukrainians, among them 14-year-old Timofi as VG reported earlier Thursday, has only national ID papers.
The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) has warned that the transport of people without the correct documents for legal entry counts as human trafficking. According to Norwegian law, this can be punishable by a fine or imprisonment for up to three years.
VG has presented this case to the Minister of Justice Emilie Enger Mehl. She says that she can not take a position in an individual case, but in general she answers as follows:
– Part of the reason why it is important to go through these questions about residence thoroughly, is because it is not only people with biometric passports who need to flee. It could be people with other ID papers, and it could be third-country nationals. And we must find solutions that ensure that no one ends up in a vacuum, she says.
Too early to estimate numbers
During the Kosovo and Balkan wars in the 1990s, Norway received 14,000 refugees from Bosnia. The Minister of Justice has previously stated however, it is uncertain whether we will face a similar situation today
– There are several hundred thousand migrants within Schengen now. They are likely to increasingly move around Europe in the time to come, according to Mehl.
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