{"id":14710,"date":"2020-07-12T12:20:12","date_gmt":"2020-07-12T12:20:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/?p=14710"},"modified":"2020-08-07T08:48:25","modified_gmt":"2020-08-07T08:48:25","slug":"norway-prefers-to-welcome-queer-asylum-seekers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/norway-prefers-to-welcome-queer-asylum-seekers\/","title":{"rendered":"Norway prefers to welcome queer asylum seekers"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In addition to women and children in need of protection, transfer refugees with LGBTIQ* status are to be given priority in Norway from now on with regard to permanent residence rights.<\/p>\n<p>The Norwegian government announced in a press release on 5 July that it would change the guidelines according to which quota refugees are selected. In the past, women and children in need of protection were given priority over other asylum seekers. In the future, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersexual persons &#8211; both as a group and as individuals &#8211; will also be given priority.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-wrap\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"no\" dir=\"ltr\">Norge har bedre forutsetninger for \u00e5 gi skeive frie og gode liv enn mange andre land. Derfor er jeg glad for denne nye prioriteringen \ud83c\udff3\ufe0f\u200d\ud83c\udf08 <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/GJ62giA0np\">https:\/\/t.co\/GJ62giA0np<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Grunde Almeland (@GrundeA) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/GrundeA\/status\/1279867805333061642?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">July 5, 2020<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Unfortunately, in many countries it is not the case that you are free to love whomever you want,&#8221; said the State Secretary for Integration Issues in the Ministry of Education, Grunde Kreken Almeland, in the press release. He said that Norway could offer better conditions for a free and good life than many other countries, which is why he is pleased that LGBTIQ* will also be granted a &#8220;right to protection&#8221; in future.<\/p>\n<p>Queer people are criminalised in 78 countries of the world, in five countries homosexuality is still punishable by the death penalty. Persecution on the grounds of sexual orientation can be a reason for asylum, as is the case in the Kingdom of Norway, which describes itself as one of the happiest and most beautiful countries on earth &#8211; and probably also has one of the strictest immigration laws in Europe for this reason.<\/p>\n<p>The new regulation should therefore only apply to so-called transfer refugees, i.e. persecuted persons who are already entitled to asylum and who are transferred from one country of asylum to another for permanent resettlement. Norway is not a member of the European Union, but is part of the Schengen area and is subject to the Dublin III Regulation. For 2020, the quota for resettlement refugees has been set at 3,000 people &#8211; with three years&#8217; flexibility. If fewer people are admitted within one year, more asylum seekers can be admitted the following year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>LGBTIQ* asylum seekers have a particularly hard time<\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>According to ILGA-Europe&#8217;s annual report, Norway ranks fifth out of 49 European countries in terms of respect for the human rights of LGBTIQ* individuals. An image film of the official tourist board in Norway shows the queer-friendliness of the country.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<div class=\"video-wrap\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"A Proud (Hi)story\" width=\"960\" height=\"540\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/NPZRHm6CAWY?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The detailed assessment of the situation of queers in Norway can be found HERE. Nevertheless, the application of asylum laws and guidelines in Norway poses specific problems for LGBTIQ* asylum seekers:<\/p>\n<p>Hanne Bjurstr\u00f8m, Ombudswoman for Gender Equality (LDO), for example, criticised the Norwegian criteria for family reunification. Partners must be married, have lived together for at least two years or have children together. Such requirements are either impossible or too dangerous for most LGBTIQ* refugees. The Nahia Riviera case was also mentioned. The trans* asylum applicant was sexually abused in a transit camp, and the perpetrator got away with a fine of 10,000 Norwegian Kroner (939 EUR). Riviera was later denied asylum.<\/p>\n<p>The lawyer Halvor Frihagen, vice-chairman of the association The association of gender and sexuality diversity (FRI), also sees difficulties in the real verification of the LGBTIQ* status.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If you have never been able to tell anyone that you are gay, you must understand that it is not easy when the first person you tell is a Norwegian policeman.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>A problem that exists to varying degrees in almost all Schengen countries. Time and again deportations and sometimes outrageous official decisions and even judicial decisions are made public, which contradict the right of asylum of persecuted LGBTIQ*.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In addition to women and children in need of protection, transfer refugees with LGBTIQ* status are to be given priority in Norway from now on with regard to permanent residence rights. <a href=\"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/norway-prefers-to-welcome-queer-asylum-seekers\/\"><\/p>\n<p><i class=\"showAllLink\">more&#8230;<\/i><\/p>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":14713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":""},"categories":[6,1,416,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14710"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14710"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14963,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14710\/revisions\/14963"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/spartacus.gayguide.travel\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}