KARACHI: While the number of Pakistani nationals seeking asylum in Norway has increased alarmingly, Oslo is finding it difficult to repatriate the asylum seekers because of “tightening of rules” by Islamabad.

According to an article published in Aftenposten, the largest newspaper of Norway, the repatriation of “unfounded and rejected asylum seekers” from Pakistan has stalled as the Police Immigration Service (PU) needs more time to fulfil the requirements of the Pakistani authorities.

It claimed that Pakistanis ranked fifth on the list of asylum seekers at Storskog, the border between Norway and Russia in the high north, overtaken only by Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis and stateless persons. In 2014, only 112 Pakistanis asked for asylum in Norway, but the number rose to 441 last year.

Of the 262 Pakistanis who were returned during the year, 152 were expelled and deported without having their asylum applications processed.

But this year the return of Pakistanis has halted because Pakistani authorities have tightened the rules for accepting citizens who have tried their luck in Europe.

“We can confirm that there has been a change in practice from Pakistani authorities as regards the return of Pakistani nationals to Pakistan,” the section chief of the department for registration and identity determination in PU, Havard Bekk, told the newspaper.

“The Pakistani interior ministry requires an acceptance of citizens before returning them to Pakistan from Norway and most other Western countries. The acceptance must be given by the central [federal] government, and not by the individual [Pakistani] embassies.”

However, Abrar Hussain, First Secretary at the Pakistan Embassy in Oslo, said there was nothing new in the practice.

“This is a normal procedure that we use vis-a-vis other countries. We want to clarify the identity of all. We have a very good working relationship with the Police Immigration Service and Norwegian authorities, and we have a good return agreement. They put forward a case regarding a person, then we make a short interview and clarify that all documents are in order. The whole process takes only a few days,” explained Mr Hussain.

He added that the issues that might take some time were when an immigrant did not have travel documents, identification papers or had entered the country illegally.

“Cases like this are few, but it may happen that we will have to clarify the identity by means of, for example, fingerprints. But usually this goes well and we issue an emergency passport,” Mr Hussain said.

The newspaper also quoted a Reuters report that Pakistan had stopped a return agreement with all European Union countries, except Britain, which facilitated the dispatch of Pakistani nationals living illegally in the member states since the government believed that the EU had abused the accord to forcibly return Pakistani immigrants branded as terrorists.

Published in Dawn, February 7th, 2016