Norway's top authority and the office of the Country Governor of Oslo announced on Tuesday (April 9) the withdrawal of a decision by Drammen's city council to only take Ukrainian refugees and not others, stating that it went against Norway's constitution and its discrimination laws.

The governor said Drammen's municipal decision discriminated based on nationality, while Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said the decision was "not legal." Støre noted that the country's 357 municipalities cannot decide for themselves which refugees they accept, only how many they can take in.

Ukrainians integrate better into society, Drammen conservatives claim

Drammen's right-leaning council had decided on February 13 to only accept Ukrainian refugees, stating that it would be easier to integrate Ukrainians into Norwegian society.

Drammen, a city located south of Oslo, is ruled by a majority made up of the conservative Hoeyre, the Progress Party, the Christian Democrats and the small Pensioners' Party.

"We take note of the decision and will discuss the way forward both internally in the Conservative Party and between the four parties," Kristin Surlien, a senior member of Hoeyre in Drammens, told the local newspaper Drammens Tidende. 

Drammen, with a population of around 103,000 inhabitants (recorded in 2023), has around 31,000 immigrants or Norwegian-born citizens of immigrant parents, according to local government figures.

Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Scandinavian country with a population of around 5.5 million has taken in 70,800 Ukrainians, according to the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration. In 2024, there were some 931,080 migrants in Norway mostly from Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Sweden, Germany and Somalia, according to official figures.

With AP