Nathan (7) and hundreds of asylum children can have their cases re-processed by the Immigration Board. This is the consequence of the parliamentary report, states UNE director Terje Sjeggestad. The Law Society is ready.
(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
(A wider selection of products available in store! 14.06.: The web article has been updated and has corrected the Sjeggestad quote according to the 15.06 paper. Red. note.)
Presentation. – Families with children with a final rejection can ask us in the Immigration Appeals Board to look at their cases again, with the report to the Storting as a new part of the basis for the assessment.
It writes outgoing UNE director Terje Sjeggestad in an email interview with Ny Tid. Thus, he clears up the confusion that has prevailed after the Government presented its report to the Storting "Children on the run" the 8. June, one year in overtime.
facsimile: Nathan (7) has been in the media spotlight as a representative of 450 long-awaited asylum children with final refusal. Now, the UNE director opens for new treatment in a redemption request, following the new parliamentary report. ILL: TV2.NO
The announcement was expected to create clearer guidelines for the future of more than 4000 children living today alone or with their parents at Norway's asylum reception center. There was hope for a favorable change for Norwegian-born Nathan (7) from Bergen, with parents from Ethiopia, and the 450 other long-awaited asylum children with final refusal from UNE.
"It's positive that the message is finally coming, but we don't quite know if we're going to be cheering," Nathan's father, Asfaw Eshete, told the Bergen newspaper on June 9. The family is still living in Fana, awaiting trial, which will determine the future of the family on June 18. On Thursday, it became clear that the family will be allowed to stay until the case is processed in the court system.
However, after UNE director Sjeggestad was quoted on Saturday as saying that UNE is not bound by a report to the Storting in the same way as a separate law, hopes for the report's effect sank. At the same time, Sjeggestad received a lot of criticism for the statement. With today's written message from Sjeggestad to Ny Tid, the Norwegian Bar Association gets blood on its teeth. Arild Humlen is sitting in 
The Legal Security Committee and is a lawyer for Nathan's family. He says:
- Yes, it would now be wise for those who have been rejected, but who are entitled to protection after a correct practice of the regulations, to apply for reversal of the decision. I hope we can now avoid going to court for postponement while the case is processed again after the report to the Storting came, says Humlen to Ny Tid.
- More emphasis on the children
Thus, there may be new opportunities for the 450 children who now live in asylum reception centers with a final rejection from both the UDI and UNE. For Sjeggestad points out that the parents can submit conversion requests to UNE, as when new information is available – such as the new report to the Storting.
On August 15, he resigns after 12 years as UNE leader. Sjeggestad rejects, however, that he has only become particularly "kind-hearted" now at the end of his UNE career.
- Will UNE now make a new assessment of the cases of all the 400 children with final rejection?
- The new report to the Storting will be included in the legal source basis for UNE's decision – makers, and it will have its significance there and, of course, be read with interest. But there will be interpretations, there will still have to be discretionary assessments in each individual case, where different considerations are weighed against each other, and the regulations themselves are still the same. When it comes to reassessing cases, there is something UNE always does when someone submits so-called reversal requests after UNE has not complied with a complaint about the UDI's refusal. This also applies to families with children who want UNE to look at their cases again, with this report to the Storting as a new part of the basis for the assessment, Sjeggestad writes.
Does not take the credit
The UNE director follows up Minister of Justice Faremo's statements as follows:
«The child's voice will be heard to a greater extent and we have emphasized pediatric expertise in all stages of the immigration administration. I expect that the new UNE director who has legal and pediatric expertise will concretize this in his work. "
On 15 August, Ingunn-Sofie Aursnes (60) takes over from Sjeggestad.
- Do you think that replacing you will change the tribunal's practice, Sjeggestad?
- The new UNE director will have to comply with the same framework conditions as I myself have had, and they mean that the director can not instruct our 30 board chairmen and 300 board members about the outcome in individual cases. Neither I nor the new director have therefore had, or will have, the credit or blame for any changes in practice, Sjeggestad answers.
Labor satisfied
The Labor Party is now satisfied with Sjeggestad's preparation for Ny Tid.
- The report to the Storting states that UNE has been strict when it comes to emphasizing strong personal considerations. In the treatment of the long-term children, it now remains to be seen how UNE chooses to deal with the cases. What is certain is that they must relate to the message, and that something must happen in practice. Families can submit a conversion request to UNE. We do not intervene in the processing of these cases, it is the immigration administration that must decide the outcome of the cases, says Lise Christoffersen (Labor) to Ny Tid.
SV's spokesperson Aksel Hagen also sees the possibilities in the conversion requests:
- The report states in black and white that emphasis has been placed on immigration regulatory considerations. It also states that from now on, more emphasis will be placed on pediatric assessments. One of the most important changes in the report is that illegal residence in the country goes from weighing negatively to counting positively for the children in the assessment of their connection to Norway. The children now have the opportunity to submit a new application where this is taken into account. The report will hopefully count as a basis for more of the children to stay, says Hagen to Ny Tid. ■
(This is an excerpt from Ny Tid's weekly magazine 15.06.2012. Read the whole thing by buying Ny Tid in newspaper retailers all over the country, or by subscribing to Ny Tid -click here. Subscribers receive previous editions free of charge as PDF.)
