Refugees Daily - Internal Global Press Review

Five hundred refugees will be given places at "super asylum centres" under a Norwegian scheme to fast-track the best candidates into jobs.

The handpicked asylum seekers will sign motivational contracts and benefit from a performance-related cash bonus scheme for showing progress.

The first five super centres will open by the end of the year, ministers said. They are designed to give skilled migrants a level of Norwegian lan-guage and culture training that will equip them to find work as soon as possible.

Sylvi Listhaug, minister for immigration and integration from the rightwing Progress Party, part of the ruling coalition, said: "Setting up the centres is a key step in the government's drive to integrate the asylum seekers into our society."

The recruits will have to sign a contract promising a high level of motivation and should be prepared for tough demands on their performance, Ms Listhaug added. Those who did not fulfil their contracts would be moved back to ordinary asylum reception centres. The emphasis will be on learning Norwegian, with the bonus scheme linked to progress in language tests. Career counselling and job training are other key parts of the project.

Norway received 30,000 asylum seekers last year. "It is important to remember that integration is no quick fix. We want to be fair but for it to work we also have to make demands," Ms Listhaug said.

Critics called the super centres an elite project for a tiny minority. "We need to integrate many thousands of people and this only tends to 500," Helga Pedersen, from the Labour Party, said. "It is not enough to tackle the huge integration challenge we are having."

Bård Vegar Solhjell, of the Socialist Left Party, said that it was "a very bad solution. The aim must be to give all who will probably be granted residence in Norway good integration from day one."

The first five super centres will open in Oslo, Steinkjer, Larvik, Bodo and Kristiansand at a combined cost of £500,000. More are planned next year.