Norway's PST wary of asylum centre radicalization
NTB/The Local - [email protected]
Published: 31 Mar, 2016 CET.
Updated: Thu 31 Mar 2016 10:08 CET
The Norwegian Police Security Service (Politiets Sikkerhetstjeneste - PST) has “scaled up intelligence” in Norway after the Paris terror attack in November and says that it is now closely following all developments in Norwegian asylum centres.
PST head Benedicte Bjørnland told Klassekampen at the agency launched a “national intelligence operation” after the Paris attacks, which includes PST closely watching the more than 26,000 people currently living in Norwegian asylum centres.
“We have some reports that there is radicalization going on at the centres,” Bjørnland said.
The PST boss said that with people coming to Norway from all sides of the Syrian Civil War, it can easily lead to conflicts.
“We have reason to believe that there are people sitting in Norwegian asylum centres who have blood on their hands,” she said.
Bjørnland added that she is concerned about the general consequences of last year’s large refugee influx.
“It goes without saying that when so many people came in such a short time last year, there was not the capacity to carry out high-quality registration,” she said.
According to PST, the large number of unaccompanied minors who sought asylum in Norway are of particular concern.
“We must be aware that an extraordinarily large migration to Norway can over time create a series of problems and give rise to conflicts,” she told Klassekampen.
Norway received 31,145 asylum applications in 2015, the highest number in the nation’s history. Of those, over 5,000 were registered as unaccompanied minors.
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PST head Benedicte Bjørnland told Klassekampen at the agency launched a “national intelligence operation” after the Paris attacks, which includes PST closely watching the more than 26,000 people currently living in Norwegian asylum centres.
“We have some reports that there is radicalization going on at the centres,” Bjørnland said.
The PST boss said that with people coming to Norway from all sides of the Syrian Civil War, it can easily lead to conflicts.
“We have reason to believe that there are people sitting in Norwegian asylum centres who have blood on their hands,” she said.
Bjørnland added that she is concerned about the general consequences of last year’s large refugee influx.
“It goes without saying that when so many people came in such a short time last year, there was not the capacity to carry out high-quality registration,” she said.
According to PST, the large number of unaccompanied minors who sought asylum in Norway are of particular concern.
“We must be aware that an extraordinarily large migration to Norway can over time create a series of problems and give rise to conflicts,” she told Klassekampen.
Norway received 31,145 asylum applications in 2015, the highest number in the nation’s history. Of those, over 5,000 were registered as unaccompanied minors.
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