Lowest number of asylum seekers in Norway since 1997

A total of 2,248 asylum seekers were registered in Norway by the end of August this year, the lowest number in the Nordic country since 1997, the Norwegian government said on Friday.

This is a decrease of 73 percent compared with last year, in which a total of 8,329 asylum seekers were registered in Norway at the end of August, according to a statement from the Ministry of Justice and Public Security.

There were 1,178 asylum applications in the period from January to August in 1997, it said.

In August alone this year, 281 asylum seekers came to Norway, also the lowest number since 1997, when 199 asylum seekers were registered in August.

"There is no doubt that 2015 was a year out of the ordinary. In that sense it is not surprising that the decline is big this year. Yet it is not just about these two years. No so few asylum seekers came to Norway since 1997," Norway's minister of immigration and integration Sylvi Listhaug said.

"There are several reasons why fewer asylum seekers came to Norway. Closed borders have had a major impact on arrivals in northern Europe. We also see that arrival numbers are even lower than in Sweden and Denmark," Listhaug said. "We believe that the measures we have implemented have also had an impact on asylum figures."

"However, we will closely monitor developments throughout the fall, and do not preclude the migration picture could change," she said.

A total of 31,145 asylum seekers came to Norway in 2015, a record year in terms of the number of asylum seekers as the previous record year was 2002 when 17,480 asylum seekers arrived in the country. Endit