Asylum Seekers Asked to Lay Low
Although the embassy of Denmark in Ukraine stopped functioning earlier this year, Ukrainians still have a chance to get Danish visas without going to Moscow or Warsaw at the diplomatic representation of Norway in Kyiv. The same applies, incidentally, to Icelandic visas. Owing to such bustling activity, the Norwegian Embassy in Ukraine opened a new visa section last Friday.
According to Mr. Iostein Bernhardsen, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Kingdom of Norway, he and his associates are now mostly worried about the growing number of Ukrainians seeking political asylum in Norway. This year, about a thousand of our compatriots are awaiting the verdict of the Norwegian authorities who must either admit that the Ukrainians are facing danger in their country or reject all their allegations and send them back to Ukraine. As Mr. Bernhardsen noted, almost none of the Ukrainians has been granted asylum in his country.
Until recently, it took quite a long time to process our compatriots’ cases. Now that Norway has introduced a simplified system of application handling, those who have filed unfounded applications will have the time of their stay greatly reduced. Moreover, those who seek asylum without having identification documents will have their applications declined and can be detained by Norway’s law enforcers. From June 1 this year, social payment to individuals who were denied asylum was reduced and confined to a meals allowance. These people will be staying in minimum-comfort reception centers. The refusniks are allowed a very limited period of stay in Norway and given no household goods, and, moreover, they are stripped of the opportunity of studying the country’s language free of charge, as well as of other privileges.
The Norwegians in particular note that asylum seekers have no right to apply for employment permission, a thing usually required of foreigners wishing to work in Norway. Such permissions are only granted to highly skilled specialists needed in that country.
More often than not, the seekers of immigration bliss fall victim to some Ukrainian agencies which promise to send them quickly to the North European paradise but in fact mislead them and fleece them of their money. The Embassy of Norway warns that newspaper advertisements about the recruitment of Ukrainian citizens for Norwegian oil platforms in the North Sea have nothing to do with reality.
Obviously, the goal of the embassy’s visa section is to filter out while still in Kyiv as many potential illegal migrants and political asylum seekers as possible. Consular employees will conduct detailed interviews with those who raise suspicions. To this end, the visa section has a special isolated room, which Ambassador Bernhardsen jocularly call, the “confessional.”
