– I no longer expect that Afghan children are granted residence in Norway. UDI has declared several areas in the country for safe and takes greater use of time-limited authorizations. This stretches the limits of what we can do within the CRC, tells guardian Therese Einarsson.
The last five months have UDI tripled its use of temporary stays for children between 16 and 18 years compared to all of last year. It mainly affects Afghan children.
Einarsson has been the guardian of one of them:
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Completely crushed
A 15-year-old boy escaped from Afghanistan, and using human smugglers, he came last spring to Oslo. After arrival he waited five months for an asylum interview. So it took eight more months before UDI made a decision.
Six weeks after the boy’s 16th birthday came the message: He gets a temporary stay until he is 18 years old. Then it is not possible to renew the permit. UDI believes the boy did not have another stay due in Norway than that he did not have proper care at home.
– He is completely crush. He just crying. He says he might as well die now, because if he is returned, he’s still going to die. He has no network, no one to stay with in Afghanistan, says Einarsson.
It is common that the processing time in UDI is long but not too long, says Einarsson. She adds that the boy came before the big arrivals began and before the use of temporary permits escalated.
– It’s easy to get conspiratorial when the decision comes so soon after his 16th birthday. I’ve never experienced anything like it. If your goal is to give as many as possible discounts, it fits very nicely that the procedure is long for Applicants, she said.
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Tripled
time limited licenses can not be renewed, has since 2009 been given to minor asylum seeker between 16 and 18 who are not entitled to protection.
There has never been common to provide temporary residence to those under 17 years, even if the law allowed for it.
In recent months UDI sharpened the use of this type of licenses: In the period January to May, the UDI has granted 32 time limited licenses of 685 measures. 27 of these are from Afghanistan. 14 of these measures were adopted only in May.
For comparison, in the whole of last given 15 time limited licenses by 1165 measures against unaccompanied minors. Of those who received temporary permission, was 10 of Afghanistan.
– We see that young people who would get protection before, no longer receive it. That there is a triple, is worrisome, says Ine Johannessen, vice chairman of the Association of Guardians.
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Pointer on three factors
They believe the increased use of the permit due to three factors:
UDI leans only on medical examination: Previously thought UDI that age assessments could not ascertain exact age, but was one of several torque for age determination. Now practice changed the medical age assessment is the most objective and reasoned assessment and is the most weighty in determining age.
Norway has declared a number of areas in Afghanistan for safe: This is in contradiction to the UNHCR report from April, which affirmed that violence is increasing in the country and that the number of civilian casualties in 2015 were the highest in more years.
UDI do not think young people are persecuted and forcibly recruited into the Taliban. UNHCR believes, however, forced recruitment is done by all parties to the conflict.
– Case managers leaning on information from country info, and we feel that they are in the asylum interview claims not going forced recruitment into the Taliban. It is difficult to hear when you’re sitting with a young person who has experienced it – and fled from it, says Johanssen.
She adds that she however has sympathy for UDI caseworkers:
– From immigration policy this government leads and the changes we are now seeing, I do not ignore the fact that they are detailed controlled, she says,
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In the hidden
In connection with asylum compromise in the Parliament, the government proposed that the temporary stay should be granted to all children not entitled to protection. It made the majority does not support. Guardians think the government even without this tightening has made it very difficult for unaccompanied minors:
– The Government has through its guidelines for UDI already secretly introduced several measures that help to limit the number of unaccompanied minors who receive protection or residence on humanitarian grounds in Norway today. It is reprehensible, says Johannessen.
– We see a pattern where the sum is very difficult for Afghan minors to residence. Much happens in secret. Why is it not public information that we have changed the practice of time limited licenses? asks Einarsson.
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Tough for kids
It is stressful for kids to get the time limited stay:
– The struggling on the psyche to see friends be placed, while you sit alone, says Einarsson.
– 18th birthday feels like a death sentence for many. They are afraid to go back and become mentally ill. Who is served by it? asks Johannessen.
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Immigration has tightened standards for unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan.
– In 2009 introduced the coalition government cutbacks because Watching it came many unaccompanied minors without protection needs. There we saw was a challenge last year as well. That this title is increasingly used, shows that there are more without the need for protection, says State Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, Marit Berger Røsland (H).
– How do you explain that there is a threefold increase?
– UDI has gone through its Afghanistan-practice and noted that we have had a higher threshold in any of these cases than other countries have. The threshold has been higher than what follows from the practice of the ECHR and the EU Qualification Directive. Fewer areas is now considered generally unsafe, but it made an individual assessment of each case, explaining Røsland.
– Has the Justice Department asked UDI increase the use of this type permits?
– We have not. The UDI make assessments, but we are satisfied that access to time-limited licenses used in cases where it is possible, says Røsland.
– What do you think about that UDI will carry out a more stringent line than what UNHCR recommends?
– VI requires and have confidence that the UDI makes its judgments based on updated country information. So far as we know, takes UDI Considering that UNHCR reports that there are forced recruitment of minors in certain areas where insurgents are in control. This is thus in UDI’s assessments of the individual case.
Røsland will not go into the specific case of the Afghan asylum seeker who received temporary permission shortly after 16 anniversary, but says it is a goal to not take longer than necessary proceedings.
– Those who fall under a provision making it, says Røsland.
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