Moscow Ready to Cooperate With Oslo on Readmission of Refugees - Embassy

Moscow is ready to cooperate with Oslo on readmission of the refugees, who entered Norway from the Russian territory, Russian Embassy to Norway said in a statement on Monday.

TROMSO (Norway) (Sputnik) – During the last week, Norway planned to return refugees, who entered the country from the Russian territory and have necessary documentation to be deported back to Russia under the agreement between the two countries. However, Oslo suspended the process of deportation due to logistical issues. Later in the week, the Russian side reported that it had temporarily stopped the admission of refugees from Norway.

"The Russian side however is ready to continue the ongoing cooperation with Norway on this matter and will keep implementing the bilateral Agreement on readmission from 2007. Procedures for border crossings for above-mentioned categories are going to be discussed during Russian-Norwegian expert consultations that will be held in the nearest future," the statement published on embassy's Facebook page said.

The statement confirmed that, according to article 5 of the Russian-Norwegian 2011 Agreement, the admission of foreign citizens and persons without citizenship who previously entered Norway to apply for asylum back to Russia on one of border stations had been stopped for security reasons.

According to Norway’s immigration authorities, the northernmost migrant route has been used by an estimated 5,500 people fleeing conflicts and poverty in the Middle East and North Africa as Europe continues to grapple with the greatest refugee crisis in decades.

Norway’s immigration affairs office also claims that around 700 asylum seekers could be deported to Russia, because they have documentation or a multi-entry visas allowing them to stay in Russia.