Update on Maria Amelie: She has been sent back to Moscow.

Public protests didn’t help: Rejected refugee Maria Amelie was ordered onto a flight to Moscow Monday afternoon, after losing her appeals to remain in Norway after spending a third of her life in the country. She was accompanied onto the flight by two police officers, and her boyfriend.

Thousands have demonstrated during the past week for amnesty for undocumented workers who have been in Norway for many years. Their pleas didn't fend off Monday's deportation of Maria Amelie, Norway's most celebrated illegal alien. PHOTO: Views and News

Amelie, who was arrested on January 12 after many years as both an illegal alien and star student in Norway, had been ordered to report in to police every day since first an appeals court and then the Supreme Court ordered her release from detention last week.

When she showed up Monday morning, she was told she would be sent out of the country within a few hours. Her attorney filed a last-ditch appeal with a city judge(byfogdembete) and the judge requested a court meeting to evaluate a postponement of Amelie’s deportation. Immigration board UNE refused, however, to halt it pending the court decision.

Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) showed Amelie and her boyfriend, Eivind Trædal, boarding an Aeroflot flight to Moscow and sitting on the aircraft at about 1:30pm. The flight took off shortly thereafter.

Maria Amelie, shown here during an appearance on Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) last week, won the hearts of many Norwegians, but not those of the bureaucrats'. PHOTO: NRK/Views and News

Amelie had been resisting her forced return to Russia, arguing that Norway “is my home.” She came to Norway with her family as a minor and stayed on illegally when the family’s application for asylum was rejected. She learned fluent Norwegian, used false identities to obtain an education and supported herself through black-market cleaning jobs.

She went public last year when she wrote a book about her life as an undocumented worker, which has turned the spotlight on thousands of others like her in Norway.

The government refused to step in and order immigration officials to reverse their deportation order, saying that would be unfair to all the other illegal aliens who are sent out of the country every week. Thousands of Norwegians have demonstrated on her behalf during the past week, arguing that she was a child when she arrived, had integrated well and proven she’d be a valuable member of Norwegian society, but to no avail.

A new public opinion poll over the weekend, however, indicated that she lost some public support in recent days. While less than 30 percent thought she should be deported last week, 48 percent supported her forced return on Saturday, reported NRK, since she had broken immigration rules.

The government did agree to ease entry requirements for deported illegal aliens as a result of her case, opening the possibility that Amelie could apply from Russia for work permission in Norway, where she already has several job offers.

Views and News from Norway/Nina Berglund


Hopefully Maria Amelie will return to Norway after following the correct procedures to apply from Russia for permission to be in Norway in the future.

Free Maria Amelie!!

In 1989-90 after finishing my A levels at a Convent in Ascot, I left England and moved to Norway to live in Lillehammer and went to an amazing folk-school: Nansenskolen, a school of humanities. I was one of 9 other artists chosen amid a group of about forty or so philosophy students. (It was the year that I designed the school sweatshirt, which had a tree of life whose trunk was formed from a profile of a man and woman face-to-face.) I have many amazing memories and experiences during this time, of people I met and of things we did. Nansenskolen is known for inviting inspiring talkers of all walks of life - and today I heard, through my mum, that only Wednesday a girl had been arrested directly after- her talk.

This is what the press have said:

A young woman from the former Soviet Union, whose family sought and failed to win asylum in Norway when she was still a teenager, was in custody on Thursday and threatened with deportation. Maria Amelie won an award last year for her struggle as an illegal alien, and protests were brewing over her sudden detention.

Norwegian Broadcasting (NRK) reported that Maria Amelie was taken into custody by eight police officers around 11pm Wednesday night, after she had given a speech at, ironically enough, the Nansen School in Lillehammer, named after one of Norway’s most famous humanitarians and asylum advocates Fridtjof Nansen.

More details on Amelie’s background                                                                  She was born in the former Soviet Union, according to newspaper Dagsavisen, in the city of Vladikavkaz in the autonomous republic of Nord-Ossetia in 1985. Her father was a successful businessman, her mother reportedly keen on being a politician. Even though Nord-Ossetia, largely populated by Christians, wasn’t as vulnerable to the religious and sectarian violence raging elsewhere in the Caucasus, there was unrest and just a few months ago, a car bomb killed 15 at a local market.

Amelie has never said why her family fled, and there’s speculation it resulted either from conflicts with local mafia or authorities. They went first to Finland, where they were rejected, and then to Norway, where they also were turned down for asylum in 2004.

They stayed, however, and Amelie took on cleaning jobs for cash while learning Norwegian, studying (allegedly under false identity) and getting top marks and eventually a master’s degree. Her parents also remain illegally in Norway, at an undisclosed location. Amelie, however, went public by writing a book about her experiences last year, saying it was the only way she could maintain her integrity.

She seems to be paying a high price for her openness. Now the Norwegian authorities intend to send Amelie and her parents back to Russia, not to Nord-Ossetia where it’s agreed they may face persecution, but somewhere else in the vast country. Russian authorities, reports Dagsavisen, have confirmed her citizenship and will accept the family if they’re returned. There were no guarantees issued, however, for their security and appeals continue to rage in Norway that they ultimately will be allowed to stay.

I hope Maria gets to stay in Norway, there are so many that do but don't deserve it.  Why can't they keep someone who is inspirational doing good for her adopted country appose to those who just take and drain from the system? I guess its not as easy as that. I think there will be an outcry, and I think the Norwegian public will fight for her cause. 

Time will tell, like many others, thinking of you Maria.

Here are some pictures from Maria's Blog. 

Here is a link to her blog, Maria Amelie, This is my Universe

and  Set Maria Amelie Free - Facebook Page.