Direct Request (CEACR) - adopted 1995, published 82nd ILC session (1995)

Migrant Workers (Supplementary Provisions) Convention, 1975 (No. 143) - Norway (Ratification: 1979)

The Committee takes note of the changes adopted as of 1 January 1994 in the Immigration Act and regulations following the coming into force of the Agreement concerning the European Economic Cooperation Area (EEA). It also takes note of the detailed information supplied by the Government in reply to its previous comments.

Article 9, paragraph 3, of the Convention. The Government states in its report that the costs of the procedures leading up to the expulsion order are not borne by the migrant worker or his family, except in cases in which costs of surveillance are incurred because the foreign national does not leave the country voluntarily; in this case the immigration authorities must have clear indications that the foreign national in question will unlawfully evade the implementation of the decision to expel. With reference to its previous comments, the Committee recalls that the cost of expulsion shall not be borne by the expelled worker or his family. In this respect, the Committee refers to paragraph 274 of its 1980 General Survey on Migrant Workers, according to which the cost of expulsion may include the costs of the administrative or judicial procedures leading to the expulsion order, or of implementing the order, for example by escorting the persons to be expelled to the frontier. Where these costs are recoverable from the migrant worker, the Convention is not fully applied. The Committee considers that the costs of surveillance referred to in section 46 of the Immigration Act constitute administrative costs within the context of escorting the migrant worker to the frontier that must be borne by the State which wishes to ensure that the worker and his family actually leave the country following the decision to expel. It requests the Government to indicate the measures which have been taken or are envisaged to give effect to this provision of the Convention and to supply any information on the progress achieved in this respect.

Article 14(a), (b) and (c). The Committee notes with interest that: (a) the settlement permit confers the right to take work without restrictions as regards the job or the place of work; and (b) that a government commission, under the authority of the Ministry of Local Government and Labour, has made 53 proposals for a better use of the resources of migrant workers, including proposals to recognize the vocational skills and experience of such workers. The Committee requests the Government to provide information on the implementation of these proposals and the progress achieved with regard to the access to employment of migrant workers in the transport sector.