Norwegian UDI boss went bananas and got fired

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Immigration agency 'broke the law' - new director resigns

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The agency in charge of immigration to Norway (UDI) violated both the law and political directives when it granted residency permits to nearly 200 Iraqi Kurds last fall. A commission that's probed the controversial permits blasted the former head of UDI, and his successor has resigned.

Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen went on leave when a probe was launched in the immigration she'd just taken over. Now she's resigned.



News of the granting of the permits set off a political storm when it broke in March, and a commission was set up to investigate the agency, formally known as the Directorate of Immigration, or UDI (Utlendingsdirektoratet).

The commission unveiled its findings Monday morning, and they were harsh in their evaluation of practices at the agency, which was headed at the time by Trygve Nordby. He later resigned to take over as head of the Norwegian Red Cross and was succeeded by UDI's second-in-command, Manuela Ramin-Osmundsen.

She was only in the job a few weeks before being forced into taking a leave of absence when the investigation was launched. The commission held Nordby primarily responsible for the illegal granting of the permits, but concluded that Osmundsen was aware of the situation and failed to object. She has now resigned.

It was reported over the weekend that UDI employees long have worked under a climate of fear, and dared not criticize or challenge the agency's leadership.

Charges of disloyalty
The former government minister in charge of UDI already has claimed that UDI's bosses at the time were disloyal in their actions. Erna Solberg of the Conservatives was furious when she found out that UDI had defied ministry instructions that Solberg claimed were clear.

By the time the permits were granted in October, however, the center-right government coalition of which Solberg was a member had lost the election and was on its way out. It's earlier been reported that Nordby and his management team at UDI believed the incoming center-left government coalition would have a more liberal view on immigration issues, and go along with granting residency to the Iraqi Kurds, even though not all their identities could be confirmed and some had criminal records.

It later emerged that around 50 Iranian asylum seekers also were granted residency in Norway after they'd claimed they were homosexual and would be persecuted back home in Iran. Among the Iraqi Kurds granted residence permits was the mother-in-law of Mullah Krekar, Norway's most controversial refugee who's been deemed a threat to Norway's national security and is appealing an expulsion order.

Resignation 'respected'
Ramin-Osmundsen's resignation comes as a disappointment to those who were encouraged to see a woman and immigrant herself rise to the top post at UDI. Instead, the lawyer educated in France who originally hails from Martinique in the Caribbean had a record short tenure.

"She decided that it would be difficult for her to lead UDI through the challenges it faces given the restoration of confidence necessary for good management of refugee and immigration policy," said the government minister now in charge of UDI, Bjarne Håkon Hanssen. "That's to be respected."

Hans Petter Graver, who led the investigation into UDI. stressed that his commission's report directs its criticism against former UDI boss Nordby. "He engaged himself personally and had a management style that ignored opposition," Graver said.



Nordby, took over as head of the Norwegian Red Cross after Jonas Gahr Støre, who was named Norway's new Foreign Minister. It remained unclear whether the charges against Nordby will have any effect on his new position at the Red Cross.