Leader: Anundsen should go

Departure. In all of its 15 months in power, the Solberg government has been spared from demands that ministers must step down. Now, however, the time has come. And not without reason.

Thursday 29. January came presented at NRK by Justice Minister Anders Anundsen in the summer and autumn of 2014, its own official in the Ministry of Justice asked if it was possible to instruct the police in a single case. The individual case concerned in practice mulla Krekar, which Anundsen & Frp need to get either out of the country or in an emergency far out in the country, ie Kyrksæterøra.

Just before Krekar was released on January 25, a general instruction came from the Ministry of Justice, strikingly similar to the idea behind the discussion with the government – who pointed out that it was illegal to instruct the police in forcibly moving an individual out of a Norwegian city. Anundsen and the political leadership in the ministry have with their actions grossly weakened their maintenance of Norwegian values.

The Krekar case is just one of several serious mistakes made by Anundsen – mistakes one would not initially think a justice minister from a right-wing populist party would make, as the ulterior motives would be too obvious. Law graduate Anundsen is also responsible for record sending of children in 2014, four times more than her red-green predecessor Grete Faremo. He is also responsible for ensuring that the management instruction, no longer to prioritize deportations of long-term asylum children, never reached the Police Immigration Unit (PU).

Anundsen's instructions were rather that the complicated immigration cases should be downgraded, now the "easiest" asylum seekers should be sent out. 1900 rejected asylum seekers were to leave in 2014, and in practice long-term children were given priority – in violation of the government's agreement with KrF and the Liberal Party from the autumn of 2013.

Thus, Anundsen is responsible for sending families of children over criminal asylum seekers. Because this was the easiest way to achieve the tough demands on target numbers for forced broadcasts. Although the Police Immigration Unit (PU) stated that it was difficult to achieve goal in the enlistment work, the message was unambiguous and cold from the Ministry of Justice that the goal should be achieved, cost what it will cost.

Or like commentator in Bergens Tidende, Frøy Gudbrandsen, writes: "The message that asylum children should no longer be given priority was whispered so low that no one heard. The Minister of Justice has used shouting when talking about the target figures. It has not been possible to misunderstand what was most important. ”

KrF politician Philip Rygg says to Our Land that Anundsen has disappointed through several cases. In the case of arming the police, Anundsen has "deceived and cheated" – he has this summer and autumn secretly introduced police arming by referring to unclear and undefined terrorist threats. Without asking the Storting. But the worst thing is the asylum children, says Rygg: "Here, young children are sent across the agreement, across promises in the Storting and across rules about children's best interests."

And Thursday also came the latest revelations to the thorough Bergen newspaper journalists: Anundsen also has kept a secret from the Afghan Directorate of Refugees and Refugees (Morra). There, Norway is criticized for its over-efficient forced return of children and other refugees to Afghanistan.

State Secretary Jøran Kallmyr (Frp) confirms that "the Ministry of Justice received a translated version of the letter on November 7." Nevertheless, the letter has been kept secret by Anundsen to the Storting and the Norwegian people. Bergens Tidende also did not receive the letter when they requested access, but had to go through detours to find the Afghanistan letter. And the very thing the letter from Kabul must be appalling reading for many politicians in what in the 1990s liked to call themselves a humanitarian superpower:

"As you know, the deportation rate of Afghan families in the Royal Netherlands is currently increasing, which has worried the Directorate of Refugees and returnees greatly. As terrible security and security conditions, financial conditions, unemployment, lack of a headache and lack of education and appropriate environment for children's upbringing and safeguarding their upper interests in Afghanistan are a undeniable fact, deportation of Afghan families under such chaotic circumstances may well lead to inflict various injuries on them.

For these reasons, before deporting Afghan families, the Directorate of Refugees and Returning the Kingdom of Norway asks to take into account the terrible conditions that dominate Afghanistan and the original places to which these families are returned and, based on the understanding between the parties, to offer these voluntary returns and avoid deportation, as upon deportation such families will otherwise be rejected upon entry into Afghanistan. "

Finally, the following is emphasized: "By mentioning the above, you are expected to notify your home country of the matter."

This cannot be said more clearly, but Anundsen is not interested in either the contents of the letter or about communicating this to the "home country". In practice, the Prime Minister lied to the Storting by first blaming the Police Directorate, then by giving the impression of having provided all the information, but still not doing so.

This is not the only way he puts forcible Afghan children at risk. He has also ruined Norway's reputation, damaged the potential for a good deal with Allied Afghanistan and increased the problems for Norwegian citizens.

This week's revelation will probably not be the last regarding Anundsen – who is in a paradoxical conflict with Siv Jensen over whether Norway should follow human rights or not. One of the problems is that Anundsen refuses to answer the media and the public to their questions. On Thursday, the excuse was that he is busy because he is "sitting at a dinner in Riga". The distaste reaches new heights.

Under the red-green government had to skilled ministers like Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen (AP) and party peaks such as Audun Lysbakken (SV) and Åslaug Haga (Sp) resign as ministers after personal, and many will say insignificant or media-created, "wrong".

In the case of Anundsen, however, there is no talk of trifle, media run or unfortunate circumstances. There is talk of real political misjudgments, promises of failure and lies. The secrecy and consequences of his instructions appear to be deliberate policies, which defy both the cooperation agreement that secures the parliamentary majority and which defies good statesman custom.

In addition, his insistence on achieving target figures defies the common perception among most people – of which 90 per cent say they now vote for something other than the FRP – on how Norway treats vulnerable people.

The police who have to carry out the instructions have told. The Afghan authorities have agreed. Major parts of the opposition are starting to speak. We agree with KrF's county leaders in this way Hedmark, Nordland, Oppland asking Anundsens to resign. And we have such an understanding for Bergen KrF's former city councilor, Filip Rygg, when he points out that Anundsen has "cheated and deceived": It is impossible to have confidence in a Minister of Justice who you do not feel you can trust. Now it's time for Erna Solberg to speak out – and say that enough is enough: Anundsen must go.

If not, the prime minister should also start thinking about his co-responsibility for the accident that has hit both emigrated children and thus our own country in recent months.