Norway’s asylum half as generous as Sweden

Norway last year received less than half as many refugees per head as its more generous neighbour Sweden, according to the latest figures from the European Union, undermining calls from the anti-immigration Progress Party for a much tougher regime.

Published: 27 March 2014 15:42 CET

Norway's asylum half as generous as Sweden

Syrian refugees in Turkey Dona_Bozzi / Shutterstock.com

According to the Eurostat, Norway registered 11,930 asylum applications in 2013, which works out at 2,360 refugees for every one million Norwegian citizens.

This compares to the 54,270 registered in Sweden, working out at 5,680. Sweden has said that it will grant asylum to any refugee from Syria who makes it inside its borders.

Norway is far more generous than the other three Nordic countries, however. Denmark, Finland and Iceland registered 1,280, 590 and 390 asylum applications per million citizens respectively.

A total of 435 000 asylum applicants were registered in the European Union, Switzerland and Norway in 2013, up from 333,000 in 2012. Syria supplied the most refugees with 50,000 applications.

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