Radio Erena: 12 June 2015
Norway’s right wing ruling party decision to deport Eritrean asylum seekers whose cases have been rejected is impractical, says the Secretary of the Norwegian Asylum Seekers Association (NOAS)– Anne-Magrit Austenå.
In an interview she gave to The Foreigner news media, Secretary Austenå denounced the statement given regarding the current conditions in Eritrea as promising by the Norwegian Deputy Secretary of Justice – Joran Kallmyr who visited Eritrea this week saying it is immature.
She said the Norwegian government cannot return Eritrean asylum seekers back to their tormentors where the government there doesn’t allow the UN Commission of Inquiry, international refugee agencies and the International Red Cross and Red Crescent to conduct investigation on reported record high human rights abuses and treatment of prisoners.
Austenå pointed out that the Eritrean government’s suggested reform regarding the Eritrean National Service Program to return from an open-ended back to 18-month-long, which is said to be told to the Norwegian delegation led by Kallymr, is not to be taken serious until it is fully implemented.
Austenå also criticized Kallymr for trusting the government in Eritrea that has deceived its own people and the international community for the past 20 years.
The right-wing-party-dominated Norwegian government has decided to give the Eritrean government 5.1 million Krone (over $650,000 US dollars) in 2015 in return for accepting deported Eritrean immigrants and this is facing opposition by many left-wing politicians.
It is to be noted that Kallymr said after his two-day-visit to Eritrea that it is wrong to compare Eritrea to North Korea. Kallymr had also said that the Eritrean emigration is attributed to open asylum grants by many European countries.
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