“Norway has expanded the list of safe areas in Ukraine: citizens from these regions may be denied protection January 14, 20:17 Share: Action on the Memorial Day of Holodomor victims in Oslo (Photo: Embassy of Ukraine in Norway via Facebook) The government of Norway has recognized as safe several regions of Ukraine. People living there will not be able to get collective protection in the country, the Norwegian Directorate for Foreigners (UDI) announced on January 13. In particular, since January 13”, — write on: ua.news
Action on the Memorial Day of Holodomor victims in Oslo (Photo: Embassy of Ukraine in Norway via Facebook)
The government of Norway recognized several other regions of Ukraine as safe. People who live there will not be able to get collective protection in the country, the Norwegian Directorate for Foreigners said (UDI) on January 13.
In particular, since January 13, the Norwegian directorate recognized several more regions of Ukraine as safe. It is about: Cherkasy, Chernivtsi, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohradsk, Kyiv (region, not a city), Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Volyn, Zakarpattia and Zhytomyr regions.
The department clarifies that “safe” areas are those where the Ukrainian authorities mostly control the situation, and Russia has no or minimal control and influence.
It was noted there that the changes concern those citizens who applied for protection from September 28, 2024 and did not receive a response by January 13, as well as those Ukrainians who applied from January 13.
Those who applied for protection before September 28 will not be affected by these changes. The new rules do not apply to Ukrainians who already have a permit and will continue it.
Following the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Norway introduced a collective protection regime that allowed it to automatically grant asylum to all Ukrainians. In two and a half years, the country of 5.6 million people has taken in about 85,000 Ukrainian refugees — more than its neighbors, according to government data.
In November, the Norwegian immigration service decided to consider the asylum applications of residents of six western regions of Ukraine separately. In particular, only Lviv, Volyn, Zakarpattia, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ternopil, and Rivne regions were considered safe because they are far from the war zone.
On December 28, a poll showed that 47% of Ukrainian refugees in Norway would not return to Ukraine even if the war ended.