Hi!

This news item seems quite interesting for some reasons. The Scandinavian countries, as opposed to the rest of Europe have been sneaking in 'laws' that require DNA testing between parents and their offspring in order to prove biological ties in family reunification applications.

These are not 'laws' passed by parliament but rather 'regulations' crafted by Immigration Authorities which allow them to 'offer' such tests to applicants in family reunification cases; an 'offer' you don't dare refuse, as that spells automatic rejection of your application.

In Norway, among the list of twelve countries whose nationals are availed this special 'offer,' ten are African: Somalia, Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, Gambia and Cameroon; the other two non-African countries being Afghanistan and Irak.

That's not all, the applicants have to travel to the Norwegian embassy nearest to their home country, which in Gambia's case for example, would mean Abidjan in civil war-engulfed Ivory Coast and at the applicant's own cost too, in order to give blood specimen. Specimen which is then supposed to be dispatched to Oslo for analysis.

Consular outpost like the one we have in the Gambia are not accepted as being good enough to collect such specimen, an exercise than can be carried out by even an auxillary nurse.

It is also supposed to take three months from the collection of the specimen till the result is made available, a time frame which does not included the six months that it is normally supposed to take to process such applications.

One is naturally led to wonder why only certain hand-picked countries are made this unethical 'offer'?

Well according to the Norwegian Immigration Authority, Utlendingsdirektoratet (UDI), the validity of documents from these countries is questionable since they are known for their rampant corruption. One concrete example they proffered was that a mother can just walk into a health centre and quote a date of birth of a child, name of parents, and be issued with a birth certificate.

Question is, why would these same authorities that accept other documents from these countries without question, choose to question the validity of only birth certificates? Why are marriage certificates exempt, for example? The whole scheme is suspect at best.

As usual, there has not been any concerted response from the communities involved. Some from the affected communities have even been blaming the victims as there has been a general attitude of: 'It does not affect me;' while some have refuse outright to append their signatures to a petition intended to deliver some form of protest, set in motion by certain concerned individuals. First it was only the Somalians, now there are nine more African nationalities; today it is DNA testing, tomorrow?

My understanding from conversations with Gambians resident in both Sweden and Denmark, is that these countries instituted not only 'laws' that 'offer' DNA tests but more far-reaching and hostile one towards immigrants. I just could not believe my ears when Momodou Camara explained to me the length to which the Danish Immigration Authority has gone in order to frustrate efforts by 'foreigners,' even those holding Danish nationality, to have even their wives join them in Denmark.

For the benefit of those who read Norwegian/Danish/Swedish, the circular from UDI on DNA testing can be accessed at: 

http://193.71.11.42/dokumenter/doc/rundskriv/2002/rs200229.doc

Below is text of the petition. Those resident in Norway who wish to append their signatures to it can also sign electronically by sending an email with the heading "Petition" to: [log in to unmask] 

Gjenopprett offentlig tillit til Utlendingsdirektoratet (UDI)!

Familiegjenforening - en menneskerett!

 

Vi som bidrar med våre underskrifter er veldig bekymret for hvordan Utlendingsdirektoratet (UDI) fungerer og hvordan UDI behandler de som søker om familiegjenforening eller om besøksvisum for å møte slekt og venner bosatt i Norge.  De siste årene har det kommet mange klager men få endringer.  Faktisk ser det ut som om forholdene har forverret seg.

 

Vi ber om at 

 

  a.. norske myndigheter baserer sin saksbehandling på bedre kjennskap til lokale institusjoner for ekteskapsinngåelse og lokale forståelser av familie og slektskap. 
  b.. DNA-tester ikke tas i bruk i familiegjenforeningssaker, først og fremst fordi DNA ikke er det viktigste kriteriet for familedannelse, hverken i Norge eller landende innvandrere og asylsøkere i Norge kommer fra. 
  c.. minsteinntekt på 165 000 kroner i året som forutsetning for familiegjenforening revurderes,  barns behov for oppvekst i samvær med sine foreldre blir ikke mindre av at foreldrene har en lav inntekt. 
 

 

 

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Regards,

Kabir.
EUobserver: New rules for third-country family reunification:

http://www.euobserver.com/index.phtml?aid=9520#

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