Refugee crisisNorway to send “bicycle refugees” back to Russia
In 2015, about 5,500 people, most of them refugees Syrians, cycled through the Arctic Circle Storskog crossing, on the border between Russia and Norway, taking take advantage of a loophole in the rules governing border crossing: Russia does not allow people to cross on foot and Norway does not let in drivers carrying people without documents, but bicycles are permitted at both ends. Norway said it would send these refugees back to Russia – on the bicycles if necessary.
In 2015, about 5,500 people, most of them refugees Syrians, cycled through the Arctic Circle Storskog crossing, on the border between Russia and Norway, taking take advantage of a loophole in the rules governing border crossing: Russia does not allow people to cross on foot and Norway does not let in drivers carrying people without documents, but bicycles are permitted at both ends.
The English-language Norwegian news site The Localreportsthat Sylvi Listhaug, who was appointed in December to head a new cabinet office, the Immigration Ministry, and who promised to stem the refugee flow, said this week that all those who crossed at Storskog without a transit visa would be sent back to Russia.
International Business Times reports that the Norwegian national police directorate did say, however, that it would avoid sending the refugees back on bicycles. Jan Erik Thomassen, told the broadcaster NRK that the police did issue an instruction that the bikes ditched after the crossing “be gathered up for use by the foreigners who will be returned to Russia. I can understand that it feels a bit awkward and odd,” he said.
The Times notes that those who arrived on bikes to Norway typically obtained Russian visas in Damascus or Beirut, then flew to Moscow and took a train to Murmansk, which is located about 130 miles from the Norwegian border.
The refugee issue has cause growing tensions between Norway and Russia. Since November, Norway has been trying to send back to Russia those asylum seekers who have Russian residency permits, but Russia has refused to allow them back into Russia.
Svetlana Gannushkina, an immigration activist in Russia, told the Guardian that of the 12,000 Syrians now in Russia, 2,000 have been granted one-year temporary asylum and 2,000 another legal status. She noted that Russian authorities gave visas to Syrians, but often did not provide them with legal status or assistance in integrating.
Gannushkina said Russia had given permanent asylum to only 790 people, of whom two were Syrian. “What is 790 people for Russia?” she said. “That’s one apartment building.”
