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RESIDENCY PERMITS

Norwegian residence permit granted to 83-year-old Japanese woman who faced deportation

Takako Ellefsen, 83 and who has lived in Norway three times at various stages of her life, has had the decision to deport her overturned.

Published: 6 June 2023 16:03 CEST
Pictured are Norwegian flags in Bergen.
An 83-year-old Japanese woman has won her immigration appeal. Pictured are Norwegian flags in Bergen.

The decision to deport Takako Ellefsen for not meeting the requirements for a residence permit has been overturned and she has been granted residence.

“She has been granted residence, and they emphasize her connection to Norway in addition to her age,” Ellefsen’s lawyer Alexander Nyheim Jenssen told the newspaper Aftenbladet.

Previously, the Immigration Appeals Board (UNE) decided that Ellefsen, who was married to a Norwegian for 46 years before he died in 2009, had to return to Japan – where she originally comes from.

In addition, Ellefsen lived in Norway with her husband in the 1960s and 2000s, before returning in 2020. Her initial application for residence was turned down because it was decided her health insurance wasn’t comprehensive enough.

She was ordered to leave Norway after the UNE turned down her appeal against the residence decision. Late last year, public broadcaster NRK reported that part of the decision was made on the basis that Ellefsen received a private pension, meaning she wasn’t dependent on her daughter for support.

“I am so very happy, I want to say thank you for the support I have received. Thank you very much,” Ellefsen said.

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IMMIGRATION

Norway to consider alternatives to deportation in cases with children

The Norwegian government will soften the current deportation rules and make it easier for those with children to remain in Norway, it announced Wednesday. 

Published: 8 May 2024 15:54 CEST
Norway to consider alternatives to deportation in cases with children

The country’s justice ministry announced it instructed the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) to temporarily halt deportation cases involving children. 

The suspension of deportations in cases where children are involved will apply until a new set of rules is put in place by the authorities.

Norway’s government has said that it would work on new guidelines for deportation cases where the party facing expulsion has children in Norway. 

“The government believes that, to a greater extent than today, a reaction other than deportation should be considered if the person who has broken the Immigration Act has children in Norway,” the Norwegian Ministry of Justice wrote on its website. 

However, exceptions to the suspension have been made, including “particularly serious breaches” of the country’s asylum rules and those who would not be granted residence anyway. 

The suspension follows an agreement between the minority government, which consists of the Labour and Centre parties, and its budgetary partner, the Socialist Left Party. 

“Finally, children who grow up in Norway will, as a general rule, not have to see their mother and father forcibly deported,” Birgit Oline Kjerstad an MP for the Socialist Left Party said to public broadcaster NRK. 

In a press release, the government announced that one solution to deportation was to increase the time it takes for the person in question to be eligible for permanent residence. 

Additionally, the government plans to have the new regulations in place at some point this year. 

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