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Norway: Police abuse foreigners data base

01 January 1991

Norway: Police abuse foreigners data base
artdoc May=1994

Samora says that the police have been breaking the terms of the
Norwegian data-based foreigner register. The Fremkon register has
over 300,000 files on foreign citizens who in one way or another
have been in Norway either as tourists or as permanent residents.
The register allows for the police to record information on a
secret code of criminal records, but the police have been abusing
this facility to register foreigners merely suspected of a crime.
Furthermore, it has been found that the names of foreign citizens
who obtained Norwegian citizenship remained in the Fremkon
register. Further investigations revealed that not only
foreigners but also Norwegian citizens married to foreigners were
registered. The police have agreed to end the unlawful
registration with the secret code.

`Political scandal' of Moroccan imprisoned

A 23-year-old Moroccan man, Driss Belkozlan, has been released
from jail after serving a year and a half sentence for no other
reason than that the police doubted his identity. When Mr.
Belkozlan, who entered Norway as a tourist in 1991, went to the
police to report a stolen passport, he was imprisoned. His lawyer
says that Mr. Belozlan's case is a `political scandal' since the
information he gave about his identity was correct (Aftenposten
3.9.93).

IRR European Race Audit, Bulletin no 6, December 1993. Contact:
Liz Fekete, Institute of Race Relations, 2-6 Leeke Street, London
WC1X 9HS. Tel: 071 837 0041.