Many young people with an immigrant background fear being sent abroad by parents
Never before have so many young people contacted support services because they fear their parents will send them abroad, and the Norwegian government is worried.
Last year, the competence team against forced marriage, female genital mutilation, and negative social control and minority counsellors in schools received a total of 387 inquiries about involuntary residence abroad.
That is 57 more inquiries than the previous year, or an increase of just over 17 percent, according to recent figures from the Directorate of Integration and Diversity (Imdi) and the Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs (Bufdir).
Many inquiries involve minority youth who fear being sent abroad against their will.
“The fact that we see an increase in the number of cases may result from more people knowing about the services. It is nevertheless painful to hear that there is an increase in the number of people asking for help. It is very serious and gives cause for concern,” Labour and Inclusion Minister Marte Mjøs Persen told the news bureau NTB.
Norway’s psychiatric services under pressure
Some 90 percent of the 24-hour care places for people under compulsory mental health care at the hospital in Bodø are used by convicts.
More and more people are being sentenced to compulsory mental health care following a change in the law in 2017. At the same time, the number of inpatient places has been reduced from 5,751 to 3,604 in the past 22 years, the newspaper Today’s Medicine and Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) report.
This has led to the beds – also meant for seriously mentally ill people who are not convicted of a crime – in the secure psychiatric units in the hospitals being filled more quickly.
“We believe that more such places are needed. The regional health organisations and the authorities must come out (and do something),” hospital director Siri Tau Ursin at Nordlandssykehuset in Bodø told NRK.
Labour Party still below 20 percent of voter support, new survey shows
The Labor Party (AP) made some progress with voters in TV 2‘s most recent opinion poll, but the party still has the support of only 18 percent of the population.
The increase of 1.5 percentage points is within the margin of error. The survey was carried out by Kantar.
Election expert Terje Sørensen pointed out that the figures show that almost half of the voters have left the Labour Party since 2021.
“It is not unusual for parties that have experienced a strong decline over months to register an upward development. Whether it will be a lasting trend remains to be seen in the next survey,” he said.
The Conservative Party (H) is, once again, the most popular party in TV 2’s survey, with 30.6 percent of voter support, up 0.7 percentage points from March.
At the same time, the Progress Partys (FRP) got 12.6 percent of support (down 1.9 percent from March), the Socialist Left Party (SV) registered 9.9 percent of support (up 0.5 percent), the Red Party ended up at 6.4 percent (up 0.7 percent), and the Centre Party (SP) ended at 5.6 percent (down 1 percent from March).
The survey was carried out between March 27th and 31st.
President Zelenskyj thanks Norway for artillery
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj wrote on Twitter that he is grateful that his country will receive Norwegian artillery shells.
Norway is providing 8,000 artillery shells to Ukraine in cooperation with Denmark, which will provide other parts.
“I am grateful to the Danish and Norwegian governments for the joint initiative to send a new shipment of artillery shells to Ukraine.
“Quick military assistance from our partners is key to getting closer to our joint victory,” Zelenskyj noted.