Recently, there has been a significant increase in the number of Ukrainians coming to Norway. According to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI), 1,008 refugees arrived in the course of seven days in September. Most from Ukraine. This means that so far it looks like more people will come in September than there were in August. Thus, there is also a need for more reception places. Several of the emergency wards are now being converted into ordinary wards. One of these is Drevsjø state reception in Engerdal. – It means a lot. More people are needed at work in all places; in kindergarten, at school, doctor, dentist and not least at reception, says Signe Storsnes. She works as a child and environmental worker in the municipality. HAPPY: Child and environmental worker Signe Storsnes and reception manager Ralf Edstrøm are pleased with the situation. They describe what happened when the reception was closed, for a kind of sadness. Photo: Geir Olav Slåen / news More Ukrainians are coming The reception at Drevsjø was the country’s oldest and had been in operation for over 30 years when it closed down in 2021. An important workplace disappeared from the village with 400 inhabitants. The entire rural environment was affected by the closure. LIFE IN THE VILLAGE: Gro Gløtvold is looking forward to more activity and life in the village with a permanent reception at Drevsjø. Photo: Geir Olav Slåen / news – When they shut down it was almost a sadness in a way. You didn’t meet people on the road if you were out walking, says Gro Gløtvold, who lives on Drevsjø and runs a grocery store in the hamlet. Now she is looking forward to the community, cultural evenings, activities at school and other things that come with having a reception in the village. INCREASE: The number of arrived refugees has increased in the last three months, figures from UDI show. Most arrivals are from Ukraine. Photo: The Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) UDI had initially expected, and planned for, that around 32,000 would come from Ukraine this year. Now they are adjusting the number. – We are seeing an increase in asylum arrivals now. Based on the increase, we have adjusted our forecast to 37,000 incomes this year, says Siv Kjelstrup, who is regional director of UDI. Need for even more receptions UDI assesses the need for asylum receptions on an ongoing basis. Eight of the emergency wards that were set up after the Ukraine war have already been converted into ordinary wards. In addition, other new receptions have been established, and there may be a need for more. AUKE: UDI has revised up the number of Ukrainian refugees to Norway. Regional director Siv Kjelstrup. Photo: Alexander Nordby / news – Then we needed a lot of accommodation options that we could establish quickly. But that is not what we can bet on, so we have had a competition where we are now establishing more ordinary receptions, says Kjelstrup. Right now, most refugees come from Ukraine, but reception is not reserved exclusively for Ukrainians. Emergency department as per 12.09.22 will become permanent: Hero – Lista Hero – Solsiden Hero – Hå Kristiansand Link – Søre Sunnmøre Engerdal municipality Nesna municipality Kvæfjord property Source: UDI Emergency department in Nesna municipality in Nordland is also among those that will remain now. They were closed in 2017. They were in a new process to set up a reception when they were allowed to open the emergency department in March this year. Frode Ulriksen is the operations manager there and is happy that they can now continue with their reception. – We have been working all along to run a reception. It means a lot to us as a municipality. We think we have what it takes to run a good reception, says Ulriksen. The reception at Drevsjø can currently accommodate 200 people. The agreement with UDI applies for the next five years. Reception manager, Ralf Edstrøm, is confident of an extension and points out that UDI drew on their long experience as reception drivers in the tender round. – And then we have the entire municipality and the population behind us. It is clear that it is important when you are going out and competing for reception operations, says Edstrøm.
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More refugees are coming from Ukraine. Several emergency departments will now become permanent, such as Drevsjø – news Innlandet – Local news, TV and radio
