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TIGHTENING: Jon Helgheim and Sylvi Listhaug of FRP want to make it almost impossible for many immigrants to obtain Norwegian citizenship. Photo: Eirik Røsvik
Sylvi Listhaug wants to make it more difficult for the children of IS members to obtain Norwegian citizenship. The requirement may affect more children with a Norwegian parent.
FRP Deputy Leader Sylvi Listhaug has chaired the FRP immigration committee, which will present its work on Sunday, the day after the FRP national meeting.
Listhaug will make obtaining Norwegian citizenship much more difficult than it is today.
– It is not a requirement that you have to adapt to Norwegian society to become a Norwegian citizen. It should fit tightly, Listhaug tells VG.
The committee launches a series of new requirements for citizenship that will become a new FRP policy: ten years of residence, oath of allegiance, and very strict language requirements.
– What is the problem if people obtain citizenship that they should not have had?
– IS fighters are an example of how bad it can go when people who oppose what we stand for get Norwegian citizenship. Then they can use those rights and benefits for their criminal work, says FRP immigration policy spokesman Jon Helgheim.
MORE STRICT: Sylvi Listhaug will further toughen the requirements for obtaining Norwegian citizenship. Photo: Helge Mikalsen
Tighter for the children of IS members
In January, the FRP left the Erna Solberg government because they brought home a Norwegian woman and her two children from the Al-Hol detention camp in northern Syria.
Listhaug and Helgheim now require the following:
- Children born abroad to a Norwegian mother or father must have a permanent connection and contact with the biological father who has Norwegian citizenship.
– If we manage to get through, we will avoid the Norwegian authorities having to spend a lot of time and resources on dangerous operations to bring back people who are connected to terrorist networks, says Helgheim.
– But will it not affect those, for example, who are now with their mother in a refugee camp?
– No, they don’t want that, says Helgheim.
– We believe that our main task is to protect Norway, take care of Norway and make sure that we do not distribute citizenship in the east and west. We think it has been too lax so far. So now there is a need to tighten up dramatically, both in relation to that group and in general, Listhaug says.
More children in Syria
VG is aware that there are four children of Norwegian women of the Islamic State in Syria, who were born in the Islamic State, but who may be entitled to Norwegian citizenship. These children are currently with their mothers, so the proposal to Frp will not apply to them.
Background: These are the remaining ISIS women and their children
TERROR WORLD: IS, or the so-called Islamic State, had the greatest control over large tracts of land in both Syria and Iraq. Photo: Uncredited / TT NEWS AGENCY
But VG is also aware that IS fighters with Norwegian citizenship, including a Norwegian-Moroccan in his 40s who has played a leadership role among jihadist fighters in Syria, are believed to have had more children with women in Syria.
In theory, these children can also become Norwegian citizens, if the relationship can be proven by DNA testing.
It is very uncertain where they are. This can also apply to the children of other IS fighters with Norwegian citizenship who have had children with non-Norwegian women in Syria, and where these children have no contact with their parents.
Great special: The legacy of IS
PICKED UP: Five orphaned children were brought home to Norway last summer with this SAS plane. Photo: TORE KRISTIANSEN
– Humanitarian efforts
Last summer, the Norwegian authorities took home five orphans from the Al-Hol detention camp in northern Syria.
The mother of the five children is of Norwegian ethnicity, so she is 30 years old and is missing. The father is an African man who has lived in Norway and is presumed dead.
– What would happen to these children, if your proposal is presented?
– What the Norwegian authorities did at the time was an extraordinary humanitarian effort, not something we were committed to. We do not want to create an obstacle to making a humanitarian effort in a situation as special as this. What we want to avoid is that adults with terrorist connections use children to come to Norway, says Helgheim, adding:
– This applies to mothers or fathers who have children with a Norwegian person, where the Norwegian no longer has any connection to the mother or child, but can still use the person in question to get to Norway, he says.
CHALLENGE: Siri Gåsemyr Staalesen welcomes an in-depth debate on citizenship. Photo: Hallgeir Vågenes
Waiting for a new debate
Integration policy spokesman Siri Gaasemyr Stålesen in the Labor Party says the Storting already adopted stricter language requirements for Norwegian citizenship on Tuesday this week.
– For the Labor Party, the opportunity of the individual to get a job and be able to support himself and his family is the most important goal of integration policy, he writes in a text message to VG.
– FRP will have more opportunities to discuss its proposals this winter. Among other things, we will consider a proposal on amendments to the Citizenship Act (loss of citizenship for reasons of fundamental national interests). The last time this case was examined, the Storting made a decision that the government has only ignored and not taken into account. So we are faced with an exciting debate.
