The Directorate of Immigration (UDI) is suspending the payment of reintegration support for persons returning to Bangladesh under the voluntary assisted return programme (VARP).
The purpose of the suspension is to prevent misuse of the scheme. The background is an increasing number of arrivals from this group and applications for assisted return shortly after they arrive in Norway and apply for protection.
The changes are as follows:
Persons from Bangladesh who apply for protection in Norway after 1 February 2015 will no longer be eligible for reintegration support. They can only receive plane tickets and help to obtain travel documents. This does not apply to persons holding legal residence in a Schengen country. They will not receive any form of support from the Norwegian authorities.
Persons from Bangladesh who applied for protection before 1 February 2015 are eligible for financial support as before, but only if they apply for assisted return before 1 May 2015.
After this date, they will only receive plane tickets and help to obtain travel documents. This does not apply to persons holding legal residence in a Schengen country. They will not receive any form of support from the Norwegian authorities.
You can read more about this in the UDI’s fact sheets here.