Refugees and migrants gather near a check point on the Russian-Norwegian border outside Nickel (Nikel) settlement in Murmansk region, Russia, October 30, 2015. The flow of Middle Eastern migrants trying to reach Europe via the Russian Arctic slowed dramatically on October 29, partly due to a shortage of bicycles to cross the border, a source who deals with them told Reuters. According to officials, many Syrians obtain business or study visas to enter Russia and then travel through Moscow and Murmansk to Nickel, a town of some 12,000 population named after the metal mined there. REUTERS/Fyodor Porokhin – RTX1TYCL
In the final four months of 2015, a record number of asylum seekers came to Norway. During the first four months of this year, the numbers plummeted by 95 percent according to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI).
Some 22,818 people sought asylum in Norway in the last third of 2015, compared to just 1,185 in the first third of 2016, figures from UDI obtained by ABC Nyheter show.
“This is the lowest number of asylum seekers coming to Norway since the first four months of 1997, when 499 asylum seekers came,” the UDI document stated.
UDI said the low number of asylum seekers “is clearly related to border and ID checks in Norway, Sweden and Denmark and elsewhere in Europe.”
