From Iceland — Still More Icelandic Towns Want Asylum Seekers

Still More Icelandic Towns Want Asylum Seekers

Published August 27, 2015

Andie Sophia Fontaine
Photo by
Maarten Visser

More Icelandic towns have expressed the desire to welcome more asylum seekers to Iceland, and have appealed to national authorities to do just that.

RÚV reports that the city councils of both Hafnarfjörður and Garðabær have contacted the Ministry of Welfare in order to get more asylum seekers.

The matter comes in the wake of a recent announcement from the ministry that Iceland would accept another 50 asylum seekers, in keeping with a European policy that each country welcomes a proportional quota. Other municipalities contacted either have not discussed the matter yet, or plan to very soon.

As reported, the town of Akureyri is also willing to take on more refugees, having had a good experience of those they have already welcomed to their town.

“The way we see it, if everyone shoulders this social responsibility, it’s possible we could solve this problem,” Akureyri town council chairperson Guðmundur Baldvin Guðmundsson told reporters.

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