Iceland review - 2015, Qupperneq 54

52 ICELAND REVIEW
A record number of refugees and
asylum seekers arrived in Europe in
2014. An increasing number have
also sought refuge in Iceland in recent
years—arrivals were up by 50 percent from
2012 to 2013 and 130 percent from 2011 to
2014. Despite the relatively small number
of arrivals, the system in Iceland is straining
to cope and few applications are given the
green light.
TOUCHED BY GLOBAL CRISIS
In a year of records, not only was the num-
ber of asylum seekers arriving in Europe in
2014 never higher, so too was the number
who didn’t: in 2014 a record number of
individuals died attempting to reach the
continent by crossing the Mediterranean
by boat, mostly from Libya. According
to the United Nations Refugee Agency
(UNHCR), around 3,500 people perished
in the waters off Europe last year. A record
218,000 successfully made the journey, up
from 60,000 in 2013. Among the tens of
thousands of individuals, the largest num-
ber from one country came from Syria,
where the conflict has caused close to 4
million people to flee since 2011.
Iceland may be far from the sunny shores
of southern Europe but the issue has been
touching the North Atlantic island too in
a number of ways. Apart from the increase
in asylum seeker arrivals to Iceland, since
2010, an Icelandic Coast Guard ship and
surveillance aircraft have been sent to the
Mediterranean and off the coast of West
Africa to carry out short-term assignments
for Frontex, the European Union’s external
borders agency, patrolling the seas for the
rising number of people trying to reach
Europe through its southern borders. From
December 2014 to early January alone, the
ship Týr helped rescue three large groups
of 400 to 450 refugees from off the coast
of Italy.
Most refugees’ first steps in Europe are
taken in Italy or Greece but few wish
to stay in southern Europe; instead they
mostly head to Germany or the Nordic
countries. Of the thousands of arrivals each
year, a small number end up in Iceland.
While some individuals look for asylum
in Europe, others seek protection further
afield and attempt to take a flight from
Europe to Canada. This is how the vast
majority of asylum seekers are thought to
end up in Iceland, i.e. Iceland was not their
chosen end destination but rather a country
they happened to pass through on their
way from Europe to North America. When
flights make a stopover in Iceland, it’s here
that they are picked up by customs author-
ities. “Iceland is what is called a Schengen
outpost so when passengers pass through
Keflavík International Airport they have
to go through passport control. It’s there
that people are stopped if they are found to
have a false passport or are without a visa to
North America,” explains Áshildur Linnet,
project manager for asylum seekers at the
Icelandic Red Cross.
For 31-year-old Navid Nouri, who was
Zoë Robert looks at how the global
refugee crisis is touching Iceland.
PHOTOS BY PÁLL STEFÁNSSON.
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