Norway violated human rights when a two-year-old boy and his parents were held in the immigration detention center in Trandum for 76 days. This was confirmed by the United Nations Human Rights Committee in a recent statement.
The child, who is entitled to compensation from the Norwegian state, is now 10 years old and lives in Afghanistan.
In 2012, an Afghan family with a mother, father and a young boy was denied asylum in Norway. They were deported in 2013, but refused to leave voluntarily.
And the following year, the Norwegian authorities forcibly sent them to Afghanistan. But upon their arrival, the family claimed they were Pakistani nationals and were denied entry. So the flight returned to Norway, and on March 18, 2014 they were detained in the immigration detention center in Trandum.
The Oslo District Court accepted detention in Trandum for the family because they refused to leave Norway voluntarily, and this justified the detention at the risk of avoiding another attempt at deportation.
After 76 days of confinement in the Trandum Immigrant Detention Centre, the family was forcibly sent back to Afghanistan on June 2, 2014.
full compensation
The UN Human Rights Committee agrees with the family that the Alien Asylum, located behind a high barbed wire fence near the runway of Gardermoen Airport, was not a suitable place for children.
The UN statement entitled the boy to full compensation, and imposed a 180-day deadline for the government to comply with the order.
The Human Rights Committee decides that Norway has violated the provision in United Nations Convention on Civil and Political RightsWhich imposes special protection on children on the member states of the United Nations.
I got the money
The family has already received NOK 70,000 from the state. The statement from the UN did not specify any amount of compensation for the 10-year-old, but orders the Norwegian government to pay full compensation.
– In practice, Norway will always follow such statements, so we take that as a basis, says VG law professor Mads Andina.
Together with Eric Bjorg, Professor of Law at the University of Bristol, he led the family’s case.
– The State argued, through the Attorney General, that the Committee could not order Norway to pay compensation, but has now lost that. So now the state must give an amount much higher than what the family actually received, says Andenæs.
We did not consider the option
In its statement, the UN Human Rights Committee stated that the immigration boarding school in Trandôme was completely unsuitable for children.
– By detaining the child under the conditions it was in Trandum and not considering alternatives to detention, the state did not take the child’s best interests into account, says the statement, which concludes that Norway has violated the clause on children’s rights.
VG asked the Department of Justice for comment on the UN statement, but it has not yet been responded to.
Moved from Trandome
Norway’s practice of detaining children in immigration cases has been heavily criticized on a number of occasions. Courts ruled that Norway had breached torture regulations after the imprisonment of an Afghan family with four children in Trandum in 2014.
In 2018 the authorities opened a new family boarding school north of Gardermoen.
The UN Human Rights Committee deals with complaints of alleged violations of the UN Convention on Civil and Political Rights.
“Coffee trailblazer. Certified pop culture lover. Infuriatingly humble gamer.”
