GOVERNMENT WILL JAIL MIGRANTS

NORWAY has put forward hardline proposals to arrest and jail migrants who file groundless asylum applications, it was revealed today.

Immigration Minister Sylvi Listhaug said the move would stop refugees disappearing while their application was being looked into.  

She said: "Police will now have the opportunity to arrest and detain groundless asylum seekers who come here and get a fast-tracked application process.

"We see that groundless asylum seekers are disappearing while police are processing the applications. This will stop them from running away and possibly ending up in a criminal environment." 

In January 2004 Norway launched a so-called 48-hour procedure to get fewer asylum seekers from countries it deems safe. 

The scheme requires all migrants who have baseless applications to have their case processed within two days and it was put into force after mass-immigration from Eastern Europe in the early 2000s.

The justice department has now put forward a bill that calls for asylum seekers who fall within the 48-hour procedure to be jailed while their application is processed. 

Oslo will present the bill to parliament today and it is expected to be past as it has already secured a majority vote from the coalition parties. 

Ms Listhaug said the bill was needed as 90 of the 537 asylum-seekers who had their applications fast-tracked last year disappeared off the radar.

She said: "We don't know where 90 per cent of them are and so we cannot send them out (of the country)."

Justice Minister Anders Anundsen sent the proposal out for consultation last autumn and it comes as an addition to the asylum agreement between the government and supporting parties from 2014. 

The call for detention of groundless asylum-seekers comes after police in February were ordered to deport more than 9000 migrants by the end of the year.