The Icelandic Directorate of Immigration and the Minister of the Interior, Ólöf Nordal, are under fire for the deportation of an Albanian family early Thursday morning. Nearly six thousand people have signed a petition calling on Ólöf to resign. The offices of the Directorate of Immigration were vandalized overnight, as someone painted “Fascists” in large red letters on the windows, the local news site visir.is reports.
Early yesterday morning an Albanian family of four was deported to Albania. The deportation has been met with widespread anger and outrage according to the local news site visir.is. The family had applied for asylum in Iceland, but was denied their application. The younger child, a boy of three, suffers from cystic fibrosis. His father, Kastrijot Pepoj told the local newspaper DV that he feared the child had no future in Albania. The father had been fully employed by an Icelandic company while their application for asylum was being reviewed.
A photograph of the boy taken by a photographer for the local newspaper Stundin, showing him holding a stuffed animal, looking out into the dark and cold of a Reykjavík morning for the last time as the family was being deported, has been shared by hundreds of Icelanders yesterday, as a potent symbol of the callousness of the operation.
— Þórarinn Hjálmarsson (@thorarinnh) December 10, 2015
The operation, which took place under the cover of darkness, was carried out by a force of 20 police officers. The ministry of the Interior has defended the deportation, arguing the family had itself requested to be sent back to Albania, the local newspaper Stundin reports. Critics, however, have refused to accept these explanations, asking why it was necessary to shroud the deportation in secrecy and deploy a large force police officers if the whole operation was really at the request of the family. The employer of Kastirjot told Stundin that the claims of the Directorate made no sense: The family had simply been forced to leave.
Leaders of the opposition parties have criticized the immigration policy of the government, which many feel is too harsh. In a post to Facebook Sigríður Ingibjörg Ingadóttir an MP for the Social Democratic Alliance points out Iceland can well afford to accept more immigrants. “Iceland is a rich country which needs more people. We should welcome them with open arms.”
The Icelandic Directorate of Immigration and the Minister of the Interior, Ólöf Nordal, are under fire for the deportation of an Albanian family early Thursday morning. Nearly six thousand people have signed a petition calling on Ólöf to resign. The offices of the Directorate of Immigration were vandalized overnight, as someone painted “Fascists” in large red letters on the windows, the local news site visir.is reports.
Early yesterday morning an Albanian family of four was deported to Albania. The deportation has been met with widespread anger and outrage according to the local news site visir.is. The family had applied for asylum in Iceland, but was denied their application. The younger child, a boy of three, suffers from cystic fibrosis. His father, Kastrijot Pepoj told the local newspaper DV that he feared the child had no future in Albania. The father had been fully employed by an Icelandic company while their application for asylum was being reviewed.
A photograph of the boy taken by a photographer for the local newspaper Stundin, showing him holding a stuffed animal, looking out into the dark and cold of a Reykjavík morning for the last time as the family was being deported, has been shared by hundreds of Icelanders yesterday, as a potent symbol of the callousness of the operation.
— Þórarinn Hjálmarsson (@thorarinnh) December 10, 2015
The operation, which took place under the cover of darkness, was carried out by a force of 20 police officers. The ministry of the Interior has defended the deportation, arguing the family had itself requested to be sent back to Albania, the local newspaper Stundin reports. Critics, however, have refused to accept these explanations, asking why it was necessary to shroud the deportation in secrecy and deploy a large force police officers if the whole operation was really at the request of the family. The employer of Kastirjot told Stundin that the claims of the Directorate made no sense: The family had simply been forced to leave.
Leaders of the opposition parties have criticized the immigration policy of the government, which many feel is too harsh. In a post to Facebook Sigríður Ingibjörg Ingadóttir an MP for the Social Democratic Alliance points out Iceland can well afford to accept more immigrants. “Iceland is a rich country which needs more people. We should welcome them with open arms.”
