Ukrainians who had a permit for temporary collective protection from war in Norway, but whose permit was revoked or not renewed, cannot subsequently obtain it again.
The corresponding tightening to the protection rules was adopted by the Norwegian Ministry of Justice and Public Safety on May 31, according to a press release from the agency.
“Norway spends a lot of money on accelerated processing and resettlement of Ukrainian asylum seekers under a special scheme. The Center Party and the Labor Party in the government think it is wrong that asylum seekers who have voluntarily returned or have broken the rules should receive special treatment again,” Norwegian Justice and Public Safety Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said.
According to the Directorate of Immigration, about 2,000 Ukrainians with temporary collective protection have not received an extension of their one-year residence permit in Norway. In many cases, these are people who have moved back to Ukraine or other European countries. These people will no longer be able to receive collective protection in Norway if they apply for it again; instead, they will be referred to the normal individual asylum procedure.
The Minister also does not rule out the possibility of further tightening the rules for temporary collective protection in Norway.
“Immigration must be sustainable. We are therefore considering further tightening of the temporary collective protection scheme,” Mel indicated.
As reported, on March 11, 2022, the Norwegian government introduced a temporary collective protection scheme for displaced persons from Ukraine. This scheme means that those covered by it are granted a residence permit under a simplified procedure and without individual assessment.
According to Eurostat, at the end of March this year, Norway had 70.69 thousand citizens with temporary protection status from the war in Ukraine, compared to 52.61 thousand at the end of August 2023 and 66.94 thousand at the end of 2023.
A total of 4 million 211.5 thousand citizens of non-EU countries who left Ukraine as a result of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022 had temporary protection status in the EU countries as of March 31, 2024. Ukrainian citizens accounted for more than 98% of temporary protection beneficiaries.
According to Eurostat data, at the end of March 2024, the main EU countries that received temporary protection beneficiaries from Ukraine were Germany (1 million 301.79 thousand people; 30.9% of the total), Poland (955.52 thousand people; 22.7%) and the Czech Republic (364.38 thousand people; 8.7%). The combined share of these three countries is 62.3%.
