NICKEL (Dagbladet): They are well educated and they are illiterate. They are fleeing from war, but also from the fear of earthquakes. Dagbladet has met those who dream of Norway. Here are their stories on the road over the frigid Russian tundra.
The asylum seekers who flock to Norway from Russia comes from all corners of the world, and of all the worlds reasons. The only thing that binds them together is the hope of Norway, a country they often do not know anything about, other than that it is rich.
Sint tooth-patient
In a bus in the extremely polluted ghost town Nickel sitting Hussein Yahya and his wife Sura from Baghdad in Iraq, along with his son Ali, who are entertained by an Ipad. The two were successful dentists, but said they had to flee because a customer was not happy with the work he had done with a client’s teeth, and now threatened his life.
– We had to flee. I have colleagues who have been killed after similar threats. We went six days after the threat came and chose Russia and Norway because the Mediterranean was too dangerous, says Hussein.
– We will work as dentists and establish ourselves in Norway, says Sura. They paid $ 4,000 for the trip. Now they hope for asly in Norway.
The coming winter road
All is not as fortunate as family Yahya. Cycling in snowstorms, in thick coats and jeans in 15 degrees cold, dolls Yassir Noras from Pakistan up along with four buddies. They say they are from Waziristan, where the Taliban is strong.
– Water, you have water, begs Yassir Noras. He and his friends are icy and dehydrated after having cycled the thirty miles from Nickel to the Russian border crossing against Norway, Boris Gleb. It is a dangerous process the five has embarked on in the freezing cold. They had to ride because they had no money for transport to the border which costs 800 kroner. person and 1,300 kroner for a bicycle, which they still need to pass the border. The five Pakistanis fear terror in his homeland, and has stalled on refugee train towards Norway. Dagbladet could not photograph them because we were ever in the military-controlled border zone on the Russian side.
The coming winter road, those who carry the dream of becoming our new countrymen. Once it was Norway who showed the world the winter road, which Arne Schouens legendary title in Dagbladet after Norwegian successes of the first Winter Olympics in Chamonix in 1924. Almost 100 years later, people from all over the world showing Norway winter road on the frigid Russian tundra, before the polar night descends on the landscape and people who like a damp and freezing lid. Hit people come winter road to the dream of Norway.
Play with the fate
It is a play with the fate they have posted on. One thing is the dangers of the cold and capricious Russia. Another thing is the issue of asylum. Most people who now come to the border station in Storskog are not Syrians, refugees which triggered refugee train, and opened the borders in Europe. During our two days among refugees on the Russian side of the border, before being welcomed in Norwegian reception, we met only one acids. He wanted to Norway because of bureaucratic bumbling.
The man in their 20s had frittered renewing stay its documents in Russia, where he has been for five years, and will reach to Norway not to be sent back to Syria because the Russian documents expires in November. After that he is illegal in Russia, a fate he shares with millions of people.
The memo from UDI
None of the people we talk to have read leaflet that UDI has authored and which the Norwegian Consulate General Murmansk tries to distribute to the refugees flowing on. It says that those who do not meet the strict criteria for asylum in Norway will be deported. Explicitly says of Afghans, that they will be deported to Afghanistan, in the note which is translated into English, Russian, Dari and Pashto. Note hanging on a secluded spot on the wall of hotel Severnoje Sijanie in Nickel, the city that is so polluted that all vegetation is gone for miles. This is the last stop before Norway for most of them fleeing through Russia. As a grim backdrop is the city as a kind of involuntary contrast to the dream of Norway up ahead.
One of those who definitely have not read the document from the UDI is an Afghan man of around 50 who is head of a big family totaling seven. When Dagbladet shows him leaflet, it emerges that he can not read. But he speaks some Russian after three years in the country and says he wants to Norway because it is bad economic times in Russia, because of the sanctions against the country and low oil prices. It is no longer job to get for an illiterate.
When one of the kids reading on Pashto, and going to the section which is explicitly about Afghans, turn family whatsoever in their hands, asking the boy to stop reading and say
– What do you want me to do? Travel around the world as a bouncing ball till I die?
The man with hotel
He travels matter further against Norway, and try to get a discount for transportation to the border for the kids. But he is no luck. 800 kroner. snout is price. It’s a seller’s market. The Armenian who owns hotel Severnoje Sijanie says we can call him the Russian name Artyom. He organizes both the last transport, bikes and of course accommodation in the city’s only hotel. The bikes are sold for twice what they cost in a store. So there is big money to earn for Armenian Artyom.
– Yes, you know, first got the money, and then came his wife, said Artyom, and shows off his Russian wife who is half as old, and turns the world won past refugees trying to bargain on the price of transport.
Earthquake fear
The likely most special of asylum seekers to Norway as we meet are from Nepal. The young man will not say his name, but he says he flees because he fears new earthquake.
In a bus sits the Syrian refugees. But the refugees who probably has the greatest chance of being granted asylum in Norway, will not talk to Dagbladet.
It will however Palestinian Muhammed electricity Pakasha, third generation refugee from Palestine in Lebanon. He displays a document with the UN stamp that he is an auto mechanic.
– In Lebanon, there is no life for Palestinians. In Norway, I would have a good life, and I will serve this life with my own hands. Or do not you believe what you say about human rights in Europe, he asks rhetorically. He took the plane from Beirut a few days ago and flew via Moscow and Murmansk. Now he negotiate the price of a bicycle, to take over the last stretch towards the border to Norway.
– I get the bike, Inshallah (God willing), he said.
Rescue they will freeze to death
The real polar cold struck last week, so the refugees have now just ride the last 100 meters for the border station on the Norwegian side in Storskog. Russian authorities are afraid that someone else would freeze to death. UDI’s note, which is designed to get refugees to turn, should such the Norwegian Consulate General has understood that, also distributed to the refugees at the border. But here is no trace of the UDI note.
But even apart from the cold, so there is little heat that meets refugees in Russia. Most have only used Russia as a transit country. But many also lived in Russia for several years.
And what will meet them in Norway? With arguably exorbitant expectations of a new life, many condemned to a brutal downturn. It’s a bit like a psychosis that reigns among the people in the flow of refugees who chose Norway. Hopes, expectations and uncertainty they have shared in this confusion of time. But the realism of their project, how is it with him?
And so far, are refugees celebrities for a moment. When Dagbladet ran across the border, were foreign tourists from two tourist buses in a row and took pictures of the refugees who came to Norway. But the refugees still came in no red carpet to the kingdom.
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