About the Norwegian National Supervisory Board
The Norwegian National Supervisory Board for Forced Returns and the Immigration Detention Centre is tasked with supervising the operations of the immigration detention centres and the treatment of detainees at the centres (Trandum and Haraldvangen). This may also include other specially adapted accommodation facilities that comply with national and international laws and guidelines. The Board also supervises forced return operations. Forced return operations refer to the deportation of foreigners without a valid residence permit who do not return voluntarily and against whom coercive measures are used.
The National Police Immigration Service (PU) deports individuals who do not have legal residence in Norway and who do not leave on their own. PU operates the country's two immigration detention centres – the Police Immigration Detention Centre at Trandum and the family unit at Haraldvangen. The centres are used to ensure the enforcement of forced return operations in cases with a high risk of escape. Individuals who do not cooperate with Norwegian authorities to clarify their identity can also be detained.
Members of the Norwegian National Supervisory Board:
- Appelate Court Judge Elizabeth Baumann, chair
- Lawyer Mads Harlem, second chair
- Lawyer Anders Jordet, member
- Nurse Hosein Behsodi, member
- Medical physician Mats Foshaug, member
- Lawyer Cecilia Dinardi, member
About Supervision
The Supervisory Board ensures that:
- The rights of foreigners are upheld in accordance with the law and regulations.
- The powers to restrict rights are not used unnecessarily or in an unduly harsh manner.
- Forced return operations are carried out according to current rules and procedures, and are conducted in a humane and dignified manner. Actions in third countries are not covered.
The Board does not supervise or control decision of the immigration case and its basis, arrest and detention orders, or other administrative decisions.
The Norwegian National Supervisory Board is itself responsible for the following:
- Address issues the Board finds objectionable.
- Issue an annual report and ensure its publication.
- Conduct at least two inspections each year. These inspections can be announced in advance or unannounced.
- Conduct monitoring of forced returns. The Board decides which returns to supervise, and whether each inspection should cover the entire return or parts of it. The selection of returns must also include cases with a good geographical distribution and different groups of people (age, gender, single/couples/families with children, etc.). Directive 2008/115/EC does not require all returns to be monitored.
Supervision Reports
On-site inspection, 7 October 2024
A notified inspection was carried out at the police immigration detention center. Conversations were held with management, detainees, and the nursing staff.
Internet access and two computer rooms for the detainees have been established. This is positive, although the Supervisory Board wishes to emphasize that this arrangement should be more clearly implemented as a right for the detainees. Aside from this, no changes in practice requested by the Supervisory Board have been carried out at the detention center, see the 2023 annual report of 5 January 2024. Of particular note is that the National Police Immigration Service (NPIS) has not made any changes to its practices or guidelines following the October 2023 judgment from the Borgarting Court of Appeal, which, among other things, found that the routine locking-down of one of the detainees was disproportionate and in violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR).
During the conversation with management, it also emerged that weekend locking-down begins at 8:00 p.m., not 9:00 p.m. as previously assumed by the Supervisory Board based on incorrect information from NPIS in November 2022. This earlier locking-down time reinforces the institution’s unnecessary prison-like character.
During the inspection, it also became evident that the staffing levels for nurses under the current healthcare provision have, at times, been unacceptably low in 2024.
Supervision on the 5th of February 2024
A notified inspection was carried out at the immigration detention centre by the Supervisory board. Conversations were held with the management, employees and detainees.
During the inspection, it was stated that the detainees are no longer locked during the daytime on the weekends, which the Supervisory board regards as positive. Otherwise, there were no changes in practice that have been established at the immigration detention centre. One of the detainees was a wheelchair user, and he explained his problematic everyday life where very few adaptations had been made to his situation. The supervisory board has asked the immigration centre to explain its routines with regard to adaptions for disabled detainees.
The Supervisory board maintains its remarks about the need for changes in practice that appear in the annual report published in January 2024.
The practices at the immigration detention centre continue to violate the detainees' human rights, which must stop.
Regulations
The basis for the Board's work and its supervisory duties are established in:
- The Norwegian Immigration Act
- The Norwegian Immigration Regulations
- The Norwegian Human Rights Act
- The Regulations on the Norwegian National Supervisory Board for Forced Returns and the Immigration Detention Centre
- The Euopean Return Directive, 2008/115/EC
Contact
The Norwegian Civil Affairs Authority serves as the secretariat for the Supervisory Board.
Postal address:
Tilsynsrådet for Trandum
PB 2105, Vika
0125 Oslo
Norway
Head of the secretariat:
Katrine Kleiven Mentzoni
Phone: 22 99 13 25
E-mail:
(The e-mail reception is an open and unsecured service. Therefore, you should not send sensitive information to us via email.)