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Norway: Suicide

01 January 1996

A 19-year-old asylum-seeker set fire to his cell in Bergen and died from the injuries. The man was in his tenth month of custody because the Norwegian authorities doubted his identity. He had been given another two months custody when he set fire to himself. This has caused a debate about the use of custody for asylum-seekers without sufficient identification. Justice minister Grete Faremo has suggested a new prison for asylum-seekers who come to Norway with false or insufficient identity. Parliamentary Secretary. Øystein Mæland stated that "the planned building will allow this type of "prisoner" to have freedom of movement within a closed area. It will be situated closely to the new airport at Gardermoen". A 21-year-old women from the Ivory Coast, is lying, seriously injured, in Ulleval Hospital in Oslo. She had jumped out of a window from the fifth floor when two policemen came to take her down to the police station to check if she was staying illegally in Norway. Two weeks later, two policemen barged into an apartment of a man from Zaire looking for the woman they thought was hiding at his home. The woman was still in hospital at that time. Dagbladet, 26.1.96; NTB 27.12.95; Arbeiderbladet, 6.1.96; Samora Newsletter, January 1996.