A resettlement refugee is a person who risks persecution in his or her country of origin and has not been granted permanent residence or is not able to be safe in the country in which he or she has sought refuge.
It is the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) who asks countries to accept resettlement refugees. Individual cases may also be submitted by international organisations and Norwegian embassies.
There are approximately 40 million refugees and internally displaced people in the world. Of these approximately 12 million have fled their country of origin. Of these approximately 70 000 are resettled in a new country each year.
Norway
Norway’s resettlement refugee quota is currently 1000 refugees.
Reasons for fleeing and the need to be moved to a third country
Many resettlement refugees have fled from war. Others are escaping political or other forms of oppression. Some wars affect everyone living in an area, elsewhere it may be people with a particular ethnic background or political opinion who are the victims of persecution.
Many resettlement refugees have fled to countries where they are not granted residence permits or protection. Some countries have several hundreds of thousands of refugees and have had to set up temporary refugee camps. However, many refugees end up living in camps for several years. Even if they have lived there for a number of years, they rarely have access to normal schooling, work or medical assistance.
The majority of refugees who are to be resettled in Norway are presented by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). Some individual cases are presented to the UDI by other international organisations such as Norwegian PEN, the Norwegian Helsinki Committee or Norwegian embassies.
When resettlement refugees come to Norway, they are received by representatives of the municipality in which they are to be settled. The municipality will then have organised housing. The aim is for all resettlement refugees to be settled in a municipality no later than six months after the granting of an entry permit.
The Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi) is responsible for settling resettlement refugees. Further information can be found on
IMDi’s website.
The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) asks a country to accept resettlement refugees.
Assessment by the UNHCR
The UNHCR interviews the refugees and assesses whether they are eligible for refugee status. An assessment is also made of whether they can stay in the country in which they are living or whether they can return home. If settlement in a new country is judged to be the best solution, the refugee’s case is sent to one of the countries with which the UNHCR has a resettlement agreement.
Assessment by the UDI
Resettlement refugees are assessed in two ways: in groups, by the UDI travelling to a country to interview and select a large number of refugees, or by the UDI assessing the refugees on an individual basis in the light of a written approach from the UNHCR or another international organisation.
Selection is carried out by representatives from the UDI travelling to the country in which the refugees in question are living and interviewing them there.
In assessing who can come to Norway, emphasis is placed on the need for protection, in other words whether the refugee is at risk of imprisonment, torture, murder and/or persecution in the country of origin and cannot remain in the country of refuge. In addition, the refugees’ links to Norway, motivation and likelihood of integrating into Norwegian society are also assessed.
Further processing
Once a resettlement refugee has been granted a permit by the UDI centrally, the case is sent to one of the local offices of the Directorate of Integration and Diversity (IMDi). They contact the relevant municipalities with a request to settle the refugee. The aim is for the municipality to have good provision adapted to the individual refugee and that it has a certain amount of experience as a settlement municipality. When a municipality has consented to settle the refugee, the UDI contacts the International Organization for Migration (IOM), which arranges travel to Norway.
Before the refugees arrive in Norway, the majority attend a four-day course on Norway and life in Norway run by the
International Organization for Migration (IOM). When they arrive in Norway, the refugees are settled immediately in Norwegian municipalities without first staying in reception centres.
On application, people with refugee status in Norway are entitled to be granted a family immigration permit for their closest family members. This applies to spouses/registered partners or cohabitants who have lived together for at least two years, and to children under the age of 18.
There is no requirement that the refugee is to be able to support his or her family members if the relationship is one which was established before the refugee came to Norway. The reason why the rules on family immigration are more liberal for refugees than they are for other groups is that refugees are unable to travel back to their country of origin to be reunited with family there.
