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From: TT
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Photo: Jil Yngland / TB / TT
Norway’s new strict entry restrictions with quarantined hotels are coming under fire. In the picture, Prime Minister Erna Solberg (H). Stock Photography.
Quarantined hotel: a necessary measure to stop the spread of the infection or a violation of human rights?
Norway’s new and stricter entry rules have been met with harsh criticism.
– The situation is very serious, said Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg in early November.
By then, the spread of the infection in the country had started to accelerate again and the government tightened the already strict rules of entry. For people traveling from countries that are marked in red on the Norwegian Institute of Public Health map and therefore considered to have a high spread of infection, strict requirements apply.
In order to enter the country, you must be able to show a freshly taken negative corona test, and once you have crossed the border, a ten-day quarantine will apply. But the previous opportunity to be quarantined by a friend or relative was eliminated, instead all travelers stay in special quarantined hotels, which must also be paid for out of pocket.
“A form of internment”
The purpose is to prevent infection from imports, but the rules have faced harsh criticism. When the government opened up to opinions regarding the proposed extension of the restrictions, questions arose.
Among other things, the criticism refers to the many exceptions that are made. For example, people who own a house in Norway can be quarantined at home, while people who rent their house must live in quarantined hotels.
The Advokatföreningen trade association wants quarantined hotels to be removed entirely because the main target group, business travelers, can bypass the rules as long as the employer arranges a room for their employees. Instead, according to the Swedish Bar Association, the rules hit hard on people who have families in Norway.
– Hotels in quarantine are actually a form of internment, it is very intrusive. As described, he does not find the ones he is most interested in catching, Secretary General Merete Smith tells the VG newspaper.
“Important action”
Anna Nylund, a law professor at the University of Tromsø, goes so far as to say that quarantined hotels can violate human rights because they impede freedom of movement too much.
– As it is such an extensive procedure, the opportunity to claim and the assessment of whether the procedure is proportional must be real. Today, there is no other opportunity to complain than if the state is sued for human rights violations, and that is not a real opportunity, he tells NRK.
ESA, the supervisory body of the European Economic Area, has also contacted the Norwegian authorities to obtain information on quarantined hotels and find out if they are discriminatory, reports the NTB news agency.
The Norwegian government is now working on a new regulation on restrictions. But Lars Jacob Hiim (Høyre), secretary of state in the Justice Ministry, tells NRK that he cannot promise that the restrictions will change.
– We have introduced quarantined hotels to overcome the contagion of imports. This is an important measure when we see that many countries around us are in the red. The ordinance we have now is temporary, we are now working to produce a new law and a new ordinance, he tells NRK.
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