Lowest number of asylum seekers arrive in Norway in two decades: report
Xinhua, January 6, 2017 Adjust font size:
A total of 3,460 asylum seekers arrived in Norway in 2016, which is the lowest number in almost 20 years, while a record number of 12,700 asylum seekers got residence permits in the year, newspaper Aftenposten reported Thursday.
People who arrived last year came from 100 different countries, and most of them were from Eritrea (586), Syria (529) and Afghanistan (373), according to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI).
The figures include 256 asylum seekers who have been relocated from Italy and Greece. The total numbers also include 427 newborns, Aftenposten said.
Among last year's asylum seekers, 320 have indicated that they were single and minors. Most of them were from Afghanistan, Eritrea and Syria.
Of the total 23,300 asylum applications that UDI worked on last year, most of them came to Norway in 2015. More than half got their application approved.
Among the applications that underwent background check, two out of three were granted residence, which equaled 12,700 people. Nearly six out of ten among those who got residence are from Syria. Endit