– If we have to build a village, we will build a village! That was said by the outgoing city council leader in Bergen, Roger Valhammer (Ap), in March. The war in Ukraine had been raging for two weeks, and the first refugees began to arrive in Norway. The goal the city council in Bergen set itself, and which the city council decided, was to resettle 1,000 refugees quickly during 2022. Six months later, inclusion councilor Katrine Nødtvedt (MDG) admits that Bergen will not achieve that goal. – We have done everything we can to reach that capacity, but unfortunately it looks like it will be very difficult to reach. According to her, there are around 600 Ukrainians in Bergen who are waiting for housing, but it is not certain that all of them will be settled here. – It is a little surprising, because Bergen should have good conditions to make this happen, says general secretary Pål Nesse of the Norwegian Organization for Asylum Seekers (Noas). NOT ON TARGET: City councilor Katrine Nødtvedt notes that Bergen has not managed to settle half of the 1,000 refugees the city council promised during 2022. Photo: news Halfway to the goal This is not the first time that a Labor Party-led city council in Bergen has asked for more refugees than they have been allocated. During the Solberg government, they announced that the Conservative government was not doing enough for people on the run. For example, when the Moria camp in Syria burned down in autumn 2020. Bergen sent the same signal after Russia invaded Ukraine in February this year. But with just over two months left in the year, they are not even halfway to their own goal. In 2022, Bergen has managed to settle 480 refugees in the municipality, including 376 Ukrainians. – We have been working since day one to do our very best to meet the refugees who come to Bergen in the best possible way, replies Nødtvedt. Immigration policy spokesperson in the Conservative Party, Mari Holm Lønseth, reacts to this: – In the past, the left in Bergen has criticized us for not doing enough during previous refugee crises. It is a criticism that falls on solid ground, when the Conservative Party did a lot to help people fleeing in 2015, she writes in an SMS and adds: – Now it is time for the left in Bergen to do more themselves to quickly give refugees shelter head and as normal an everyday life as possible. BER BERGEN GUARANTEED: – Municipalities like Bergen must not become a bottleneck in the system, writes Immigration policy spokesperson in the Conservative Party, Mari Holm Lønseth, Photo: Kasper Holgersen Bergen at the back of the queue Bergen was already doing badly in May. Two and a half months into the war, only one Ukrainian family had settled in the municipality. Bergen now has the worst target achievement of the five largest cities in the country. Oslo is clearly the best. The city has a target of settling 2,000 this year, and until 24 October had settled 1,537 (77 per cent), including 1,308 from Ukraine. Corresponding figures for the others: Stavanger: 740 (target) / 496 resident refugees (67 percent of the target) / 449 resident Ukrainians Trondheim: 740 / 464 (63 percent of the target) / 345 Tromsø: 550 / 309 (56 percent of the target) / 266 Bergen: 1,000 / 480 (48 per cent of the target) / 376 So far this year, Norway has settled a total of 19,962 refugees from Ukraine (with collective protection) and 3,429 from other countries (without collective protection), for a total of 23,391 refugees. It shows updated figures from the Directorate of Integration and Diversity (Imdi). STAYING IN A HOTEL FOR A WEEK: Yevheniia Pozdnikhorenko and her family of four lived for around two months in a hotel room in Bergen before settling down. She was one of many who stood in line already in May. Photo: Linnea Skare Oskarsen Small municipalities house the lion’s share of Bergen, with its around 290,000 inhabitants making up almost half of the county’s population. But the municipality has only settled around a fifth of the county’s new refugees. Other, far smaller municipalities have therefore settled the vast majority of the county’s newly arrived refugees. The majority are Ukrainian (figures in brackets): Alver municipality with under 30,000 inhabitants, 178 (160) residents Bjørnafjorden municipality with under 25,000 inhabitants, 160 (147) residents Kinn municipality with 17,000 inhabitants, 143 (124) residents Ullensvang municipality with 3,370 inhabitants, has 171 (138) residents Øygarden municipality with 4,700 inhabitants, has 143 (126) residents Mayor of Ullensvang Roald Aga Haug from the Labor Party, thinks the contrast with Bergen is strange. – It is war and we have to roll up our sleeves as best we can. We can be a little proud of having managed it, and then Bergen and other municipalities should accept more, he believes. – Come visit us and learn how we organize refugee work. This is the mayor of Kinn, Ola Teigen (Ap), his clear advice for Bergen. – Why is Bergen behind? – It is difficult to give a clear answer. We have done everything we could to try to reach that capacity. Unfortunately, it looks like it will be very difficult to achieve the goal. There have been challenges we did not foresee, says Nødtvedt to news. She lists a lack of interpreters, complex cases, families with children who require a special type of accommodation, as well as the fact that some Ukrainians have chosen to return home, as part of the causal picture. – SHOULD WELCOME MORE: Mayor of Ullensvang, Roald Aga Haug from the Labor Party, thinks it strange that the contrast between Ullensvang and Bergen is so great. Photo: Tale Hauso / news Don’t know when the goal will be reached On Tuesday, Støre explained the refugee situation. The Prime Minister told the Storting that around 30,000 Ukrainian refugees have arrived in Norway this year, and the government expects 10,000 more this year. By next year, the government estimates that there will be 30,000 new ones. – We would like to learn from other municipalities but also evaluate our own efforts. It will hopefully give us some learning points for the next situation with the arrival of many refugees, says city councilor Nødtvedt in Bergen. – When can you fulfill the goal of 1,000 Ukrainian refugees? – It will be difficult to say.
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Bergen has asked the government for more refugees for a number of years. Now the municipality is unable to settle them – news Vestland
