Asylum-seekers were forcibly returned to Greece under the Dublin II Regulation and
to Iraq. Protection for women survivors of sexual violence remained inadequate.
Despite serious concerns about inadequate asylum determination procedures and poor
detention conditions in Greece, 277 asylum-seekers had been transferred there under
the Dublin II Regulation by 30 September. In October, the immigration authorities
suspended Dublin II transfers to Greece and started substantively examining these
asylum applications.
Contrary to guidelines by UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, 140 Iraqis were forcibly returned
from Norway to Iraq, including on charter flights organized jointly with other European
states.
In October, the Ministry of Justice invited NGO input into policy proposals being
drafted to improve the situation of asylum-seeking children. In the same month, the
Minister of Justice announced planned improvements to the asylum procedure and reception
conditions for asylum-seeking families with children. In December, the Directorate
of Immigration announced the closure of places for up to 292 asylum-seeking children
in various reception centres.
In April, the government signed a three-party agreement with Afghan authorities and
UNHCR on the return of asylum-seekers to Afghanistan, including plans for a reception
centre for asylum-seeking children returned to Afghanistan.
In August, a Syrian Kurd rejected asylum-seeker, Abd al-Karim Hussein, was forcibly
returned to Syria, where he was held in incommunicado detention for 15 days, during
which time he said he was tortured. He was released without charge and subsequently
fled Syria.
Protection and access to justice for survivors of rape and other sexual violence remained
inadequate in law and practice. The definition of rape in the General Civil Penal
Code continued to link rape with the use or threat of physical violence by the perpetrator.
Prosecution and conviction rates for rape remained low and national statistics on
rape were not maintained.
In March, the Borgarting Court of Appeal found Mirsad Repak, a naturalized Norwegian
citizen who served in the Croatian Defence Forces, guilty of war crimes and crimes
against humanity committed in 1992 at Dretelj detention camp, during the war in Bosnia
and Herzegovina. In December, the Supreme Court quashed the Court of Appeal’s decision
to convict Mirsad Repak on charges related to war crimes and crimes against humanity,
on the basis that these crimes were not part of the Norwegian Penal Code at the time
they were committed. The Supreme Court’s decision on the charge of “deprivation of
liberty” was expected in 2011.
By the end of the year, Norway had not signed the Optional Protocol to the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and continued to delay ratification
of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture.
