Mayor of Reykjanesbær, Árni Sigfússon, put forth a proposal that the municipality will no longer accept asylum seekers from the 1st of April. The proposal further stipulates that there not be more than 50 asylum seekers in the town for periods longer than six months. Árni’s proposal was unanimously adopted in City Hall yesterday, RÚV reports.
The proposal states that the recent increase in asylum seekers has prompted the need for the municipality to review its contract to house them. A report accompanying the proposal states that there are 149 asylum seekers in the country, which is more than double how many there were when Reykjanesbær signed the existing housing contract.
In recent weeks Reykjanesbær has moved 40 asylum seekers to the town center, but the report states that this is undesirable for local residents and companies, as the concentration of asylum seekers in the community is becoming prominent, which the proposal states is not in the best interest of the community or the asylum seekers.
Asylum seekers in Iceland have long been subject to living in the Fit Hostel in Reykjanesbær, where they are kept waiting for long stretches of time for their cases to be processed. The majority are then deported.
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