Iceland delays departure centre as Snorri calls policy performative

Iceland has postponed opening a departure centre by at least a year, prompting Centre Party MP Snorri Másson to describe the government’s immigration policy as performative, mbl.is reported.

The centre had been due to open in December, but the government now aims to open it a year later because preparations could not be completed in time. Snorri, a member of parliament’s General and Education Committee, discussed the delay on his podcast, Fréttir vikunnar.

He said the centre had been presented as the government’s flagship immigration measure during the previous parliamentary term, but argued that postponing it showed it was not as urgent as claimed.

Snorri said the Centre Party had put forward other proposals, including restricting residence permits for people from outside the European Economic Area and closing the asylum system. He said people who no longer had a right to remain should be sent home, and that residence permits obtained unlawfully should be revoked. The party also wants some categories of permits reviewed where there are indications they were improperly granted.

He described the departure centre as a measure that could cost billions over time, adding that experience abroad had been mixed. People can remain at such centres much longer than initially intended, he said, and disorder can arise when their stated main purpose is to keep people in one place until deportation.

Snorri also pointed to the 30 billion being spent on a new prison, saying these cases had previously been handled through imprisonment. He said Iceland could consider cooperating with countries such as Denmark and Germany, which have begun work to move growing parts of their asylum systems to third countries through new international agreements. Departure centres abroad could, he said, hold people until their deportations proceed through legal channels.

The Centre Party abstained when the departure-centre proposal was considered in parliament and warned that it could become a large undertaking, while more effective measures could address much of the problem. Snorri said the party wanted to tackle the roots of the asylum system’s problems and that applications should not be accepted in Iceland.