Refugees seeking asylum in Norway go on hunger strike against deportation to Russia

OSLO, January 18. /TASS/. Refugees from the Middle East, who arrived in Norway from Russia in autumn, have gone on a hunger strike protesting against the Norwegian government’s plans to send them back to Russia, the national broadcasting corporation said on Monday.

Last week some 70 refugees were transported to the special center in the Finnmark province of Sor-Varanger bordering on the northern Russian Murmansk Region. The asylum seekers are afraid of being deported from Norway and claim that they will not receive any help from the Russian authorities.

Last year more than 5,500 asylum seekers entered Norway by using the so-called "Arctic route" through Moscow, Murmansk and Nikel village. In late November, the Norwegian authorities stopped the refugee flow.

The Russian side said it would not accept the refugees back as Russia was only a transit country for them.