The 3-year-old is the daughter of a Norwegian-affiliated IS fighter. The man traveled from Norway to Syria in 2014 to join the terrorist group. He is a foreigner, but the IS fighter’s mother is a Norwegian citizen. It is this woman who, on behalf of the 3-year-old, has applied for the girl to immigrate to Norway. The Norwegian citizen together with the 3-year-old in Turkey. Photo: Private The woman lives in Eastern Norway, but is now in Turkey with the girl. At the beginning of February, the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI) rejected the application for the 3-year-old. The UDI believes that there are not sufficiently strong human considerations in favor of the girl being granted a temporary residence permit in Norway. The Directorate also refers to the risk of increased immigration. The mother is said to have given the girl up. Lawyer Nils Christian Nordhus represents the child in the case. Lawyer Nils Christian Nordhus says that the girl has applied for family immigration to Norway. Photo: Mohammed Alayoubi / news The high-profile lawyer is known, among other things, for his work in getting a Norwegian IS woman and her child back to Norway. He has assisted with the 3-year-old’s application to UDI. The lawyer says that the girl must have been born in Syria. – Her father is imprisoned in northern Iraq. The grandmother was contacted by the child’s mother, who wanted the grandmother to take over the care of the child, says Nordhus to news. According to the lawyer, the mother has now disappeared. – Why did the mother give the girl up? – It is probably a complex assessment. This is a girl who needs a lot of care. She has Down syndrome and needs heart surgery. The totality for the mother made it completely impossible for her to care for the girl, replies Nordhus. “Urgent to get the holes in your heart closed” The lawyer refers to a doctor’s report from Turkey, where a heart specialist writes that the girl has Down’s syndrome and the heart defect AVSD, among others. The girl and the Norwegian citizen are in Turkey. Here on a trolley ride. Photo: Private news has seen this statement, but has not succeeded in getting in touch with the doctor in question. Almost half of children with Down syndrome are born with heart defects. This defect means that there are holes in the wall between the sides of the heart. The decision from UDI states that the girl’s grandmother was told by the doctor “that an operation is urgent to close the holes in your heart.” The association for children with heart disease writes on its website that it is common to operate on such a heart defect at 3-4 months of age. The Turkish specialist recommends further examinations as soon as possible to obtain a detailed representation of the girl’s heart, and that an operation must be planned according to the result. According to the application, a Turkish hospital has refused to treat the girl because she does not have identity papers. – When it comes to which operative interventions must be carried out, the grandmother has no other confirmed information than what follows from the preliminary assessment by the local Turkish doctor. She has not received any health records on the grandchild from the time before she took over care. She is afraid of her grandson, says Nordhus. He believes strong human considerations speak for allowing the girl to immigrate to Norway. – She has no father who can take care of her. She has no mother to take care of her. She only has one real carer, it is her grandmother who is Norwegian and lives in Norway, he says. Went to the Norwegian consulate in Turkey The application states that the girl was born in autumn 2019. At this time, her father was already in prison. The man was arrested in spring 2019 in Syria. news knows his identity. The man is now serving a sentence in Iraq for participation in IS. After the girl was born, she has probably been in Syria with her mother. At one point the mother and child crossed the border into Turkey. In November last year, the mother is said to have voluntarily given the child to the Norwegian citizen, who is probably the girl’s grandmother. On 24 November, the two went to the Norwegian consulate in Istanbul. There, the Norwegian citizen submitted an application for family immigration to Norway. However, the woman encountered problems in connection with the DNA testing of the two. The DNA samples that the Norwegian authorities initially took spoke against the woman being the child’s grandmother. The woman then took new tests on her own initiative. Oslo University Hospital then wrote an expert assessment based on these samples. The report shows that it is more than 99 percent certain that the foreign fighter is the child’s father. “The analysis shows genetic agreement between (the foreign fighter’s name) and (the child’s name) in all of the examined markers (…)”, the report states. Analyzes were also made of whether the Norwegian citizen is the mother of the foreign fighter. UDI writes that the tests make it probable that the woman is the child’s biological grandmother. UDI believes it is unfortunate to separate the child from the mother. Normally, you cannot apply for family reunification with grandparents who live in Norway. The 3-year-old in a hotel room in Turkey. Photo: The Private Immigration Act nevertheless allows for the granting of a residence permit if “strong human considerations” speak for it. UDI believes that there are insufficient considerations in favor of granting the girl residence. In addition, the Directorate refers to immigration regulatory considerations. In the justification, UDI emphasizes that the child’s mother is alive and must be in Turkey. UDI writes that they assume that your “mother is alive and can exercise care for you.” Therefore, the UDI believes it is unclear whether it will be in the girl’s best interest to be granted residence: “We know that your health situation will be well taken care of in Norway and that these conditions speak for permission being granted, but that it is unfortunate to separate you from your primary carer and the person who has parental responsibility for you.” UDI writes that they risk granting a residence permit on incorrect grounds when they have “so little information about your life” until recently. If the child’s mother is not available, UDI writes that they assume that what is likely to be the child’s grandmother “can assist you in getting the help and care you need in Turkey or in another country you are connected to, even if she must return to Norway.” news has tried to get an interview with UDI about the matter. The Norwegian citizen has lifted the obligation of confidentiality. As the woman is not the child’s guardian, the consent is not valid, according to UDI. Complained about the refusal Nordhus has now complained about the refusal to UDI. – We think the decision is wrong. That puts the child in a completely impossible situation, says the lawyer. – According to UDI, it is unfortunate to separate the girl from her mother, who has been the carer for this girl so far. Why do you think it is in the best interests of the child to separate her from her mother? – Firstly, the mother herself has decided that she is not able to look after the girl. We assume that it is related to her special care needs. We also assume that it may be related to the mother’s history. Lawyer Nordhus says that the girl has not confirmed her citizenship anywhere. Photo: Mohammed Alayoubi / news – How well documented is it that the mother cannot have custody of this child? – Giving up care for your own child is a dramatic decision that I think most mothers would be reluctant to make. The decision speaks for itself. The second is that if it is true that the mother has been in Syria and lived in IS-controlled areas, then it is very natural to think that her life situation is not compatible with having the care of a little daughter in need of care. – Where is mother today? – We have no information about her whereabouts today. There is no contact between the grandmother and the child’s mother. The child’s mother has completely left the care of the child to the grandmother. – UDI assumes that the Norwegian citizen can assist in getting the help and care she needs in Turkey or another country. How do you see it? – Grandma is Norwegian and she has limited resources. She will of course do her utmost to ensure that the girl gets the best possible help where she is today, in Turkey. Other surrounding countries are hard to imagine, replies Nordhus.
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“It is urgent to close the holes in your heart” – news Norway – Overview of news from various parts of the country
