asylum
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What Are Icelanders Talking About?: Coronavirus, Efling Strike, And More
One of the more concerning news stories of late has been the arrival of the coronavirus to Iceland. An Icelandic man in his forties was diagnosed on February 28th and was quarantined at the Landspítali Infectious Disease Department in Fossvogur. In the…
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VIDEO: Trans Refugee Supporters Temporarily Blockade Traffic, Brief Tussle Ensues
Roughly 50 people converged on the Ministry of Justice today to hand over a petition, with over 7,500 signatures at the time of this writing, calling upon the Icelandic authorities to grant asylum to a trans teen and his family who face…
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VIDEO: Trans Teen Facing Deportation Admitted To Hospital, Situation Still Perilous
A teenaged trans boy and his family, originally from Iran, were facing deportation from Iceland today. That decision was postponed as the boy in question, Maní, has been admitted to hospital after suffering a mental breakdown over fear and anxiety about the…
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Number Of Asylum Applications In Iceland In Sharp Decline
According to new data from The Directorate of Immigration, the number of asylum seekers applying for international protection in Iceland has sharply decreased between the years 2016 and 2017, Kjarninn reports. In addition, the number of applications filed so far this year…
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Petition Going To Protest Deportation
A petition is going protesting the impending deportation of asylum seeker Sid Ahmed Haddouche and his family. Sid is a former police officer from Remchi, an Algerian bordertown close to Morocco. In 2013, Sid and his colleague arrested a member of AIS…
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Telati Family Will Get To Stay In Iceland
A family from Albania, after a strong grassroots show of support, has finally been granted residency in Iceland. Vísir reports that the Telati family, who first arrived in Iceland seeking asylum last June, have been granted residency for humanitarian reasons. As reported,…
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Red Cross Collecting Furniture For Syrian Asylum Seekers
Six Syrian families are due to arrive in Iceland this month and the Red Cross are collecting furniture and other household items to furnish their new homes, reports Vísir. “The municipalities are providing the apartments [for the asylum seekers] and the Red…
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14 People Granted Asylum
14 people from Iraq and Syria were granted asylum yesterday, but one Syrian family facing deportation to Greece was not amongst them. The 14 individuals granted asylum in Iceland include children amongst them, RÚV reports. Kristjana Fenger, a lawyer who has worked…
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Paris Attack Won’t Affect Iceland’s Plan To Accept Refugees
Interior Minister, Ólöf Nordal, has told RÚV that the attacks in Paris would not be affecting the government’s plan to accept Syrian refugees this year nor would it change the government’s policy on asylum. The question was brought on by the wave…
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Over 9,000 Icelanders Sign Petition To Grant Albanian Family Asylum
Over 9,000 Icelanders have signed a petition in just the past two days calling for an Albanian family to be allowed to stay in the country. The petition, “Let the Albanian Telati family settle in Iceland”, was started two days ago by…
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Welcome To Iceland: A Walk-Through Of The Refugee Arrival Process
When Iceland receives new refugees, the Red Cross plays a crucial and central role. Working alongside the various municipalities and government ministries, their mission starts a long time in advance as they train new volunteers to aid the refugees’ arrival, along with…
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Did We Just Detain A Man For Carrying HIV? —Debates On Monday #24
“Man under arrest, suspected of infecting women with HIV” ran Vísir’s first headline on this story, early Thursday. “Suspected of infecting women with HIV” headlined RÚV a little later. “A foreign male is suspected …” their item began. Vísir’s second headline, published…
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When Ulysses Comes a-Knockin
http://youtu.be/TEC4nZ-yga8 It is quiet, isn’t it? I mean Iceland. It’s suspiciously quiet. There’s this saying that if you look around the poker table and you don’t know who’s being bluffed, it’s probably you. Something fishy must be going on. The Mediterranean Have…
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The Waiting Is The Worst For Asylum Seekers
Asylum seekers in Iceland struggle most with the uncertainty they experience while waiting for verdicts on whether they will be granted permission to stay, reports Vísir. According to research conducted by Lilja Ingvarsson into the emotional well being of asylum seekers, subjects…
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Immigration Appeals Board Finally In Place
On Monday, January 26, the Minister of the Interior appointed members to the Immigration Appeals Board (Kærunefnd útlendingamála), established by law in May 2014. The board was supposed to start its operations on January 1. The board’s Chair and its staff have,…
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Man Awaiting Asylum Decision Wounded Himself
A refugee from Syria, who recently arrived in Iceland, wounded himself with a knife on Tuesday. When police arrived at the bloody scene, they called for special forces backup, and subsequently made several arrests. According to DV, the arrests were made due…
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Damages In Leaked Memo Case Not Settled Yet
Following his conviction in the leaked memo case last year, former assistant to the Minister of the Interior, Gísli Freyr Valdórsson, is yet to settle on an amount to pay in damages, reports RÚV. As reported, Gísli Freyr was sentenced to an…
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Týr Rescues 360 Migrants In Drifting Cargo Vessel Ezadeen
Ezadeen is the name of the vessel found drifting in the Mediterranean, last Thursday and towed to land by the Icelandic Coast Guard’s offshore patrol vessel Týr. The ship carried 360 migrants, mainly from Syria. They had been locked in the ship’s…
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Lampedusa Survivor Wrongfully Imprisoned, Says High Court
On Tuesday, the High Court ruled in favor of Ethiopian citizen Firaol Taresa against the Capital Area Police, releasing Taresa from custody until his imminent eviction to Italy. This was reported by RÚV. Taresa, reportedly a survivor of the 2013 Lampedusa shipwreck,…
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Court Confirms Deportation Of Tony Omos
On Friday, the Reykjavík District Court acquitted the Directorate of Immigration (UTL) from charges pressed on behalf of Tony Omos, whose application for asylum in Iceland will thereby not be taken to consideration. A demonstration has been announced on Saturday, to protest…
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Coastal Patrol Vessel Týr Rescues 406 Migrants Drifting On “Deadliest Route”
This Wednesday, the Coast Guard published the attached photographs, taken aboard its coastal patrol vessel Týr, during a search and rescue operation in the Mediterranean. According to RÚV, that day Týr’s crew took part in an operation saving 408 migrants, travelling on…
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Police Officer Wants Limits On Immigrants’ Right To Privacy
Police officer Birgir Örn Guðjónsson, colloquially known as Biggi the cop, wrote an article, published in Fréttablaðið/Vísir on Thursday, under a title which may be loosely translated as “The Forbidden Article”. Birgir shares an anecdote about a man “of foreign origin” who,…
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All Highly Unlikely
The freedom fighter Last things first: Styrmir Gunnarsson, former editor of Morgunblaðið, has published his memoirs from the Cold War. As reported, these disclose, among other things, that during most of the 1960s, Styrmir provided the Independence Party’s Chair and Minister of…