Afghan ambassador to Norway calls for no mass deportations of refugees

Afghanistan's ambassador to Norway Shukria Barakzai has asked the Nordic country to stop mass deportations of Afghan refugees, newspaper Aftenposten reported Saturday.

Barakzai's remarks came after Norwegian Minister of Migration and Integration Sylvi Listhaug talked of deportations of Afghan asylum seekers from Norway on social media, the newspaper said.

Barakzai warned about the disaster in her home country. "This is the worst possible time to send asylum seekers back," she told Aftenposten.

"We are flooded with refugees from Pakistan and Iran currently. All the countries that have Afghan refugees need to understand and realize the challenges we have now," Barakzai said.

From January until October this year, there have been 2,323 rejected asylum seekers from Afghanistan. In the last 10 months, 743 Afghans have been sent out of Norway.

Afghanistan has had almost 800,000 returned refugees this year. The country has also around 1.3 million internally displaced people.

Barakzai calls for better dialogue with the police's department of immigration and the immigration authorities regarding the deportation.

Vidar Brein Karlsen, Listhaug's secretary, responded by saying that he was not informed about any inquiries from the Afghanistan ambassador.

"In the case of return, Norway relates to the tripartite agreement signed between Norway, Afghanistan and UNHCR in 2005. The agreement was renegotiated in 2011 and is still applicable," Karlsen told Aftenposten.

source: Xinhua