It could be a warm welcoming for a foreigner – if one were not talking about the Arctic Circle: the Norwegian archipelago of Svalbard, 1000km from the North Pole, is the only place in Western Europe where migrants don’t need stay permit nor visa. Based on a treaty dating back to 1920 anyone is “free to enter and stay” on the islands. Though that requires of being able to find a job and to resist temperatures as cold as -30 Celsius degrees below zero.

 

86 years ago the international treaty signed by over 40 countries appointed the Svalbard under the governance of Norway and guaranteed the same rights at the islands to the signing countries as they would enjoy in their homeland. Subsequently the right was extended to regard anyone. In that way the islands have become a safe landing for asylum seekers thrown out of Norway, but also a land of opportunities for numerous foreigners. Of the 1.800 inhabitants of Longyearbyen, the most populated area of the islands, 200 people have 25 different nationalities. The local population is divided in two large ethnic groups; Norwegian with 55 per cent of the total and Russian-Ukrainian with 45 per cent.

 

One of the biggest groups after the Russian is surprisingly the Thai population with about 70 individuals. One wonders how it is possible that one would come from Thailand to look for work to only a few hundred kilometres away from the North Pole. To give an answer to the question is the vice-governor of the Svalbard, Rune Hansen: “The story of the Thai is an interesting one. In started in the ‘70s when the local miners managed to gather enough money to on a vacation in the Tropics. A few couples were formed and some miners returned to Svalbard with the Thai women. The arrived relatives and the community was formed.”

 

Is it true that no stay permit, visa or passport is required in order to enter Svalbard? “Yes, it is possible to enter without these documents but one’s you arrive you need to be able to take care of yourself. You need to find a place to live, which is very expensive, then to find a job which is quite difficult. There are many foreigners who come to Svalbard but after a while leave again as their financial situation makes it impossible for them to stay. In theory this place seems like a paradise for migrants but actually this is not an easy place at all. In addition to the cold temperatures – it’s dark in the winter and even in the summer the temperature stays between 2 – 12 Celsius degrees – there is another factor making the life at Svalbard difficult: that is the lack of welfare for migrants. Social and health services do not exist for those who don’t work or have dwelling. Those without jobs and domicile are deported from the archipelago. What kind of work people who come here look for? Many search jobs in tourism, which is very developed, and of course there are those who work without particular professional competences as waitresses, shop assistants, cooks or in cleaning. But you need to speak English and preferably Norwegian too. To become a miner you need to do a specific training course and it’s a dangerous job. The Svalbard islands host a famous university for arctic studies which has 200 students from abroad”.

 

And what about the asylum seekers? “Those arriving from Norway have a right to stay just like any other. The police cannot do anything even if there is a person with a deporting order coming in here. But they are only few who have stayed, less than ten. As I said, you need to be able to take care of yourself up here”. “Up here” the reverse side of the high salary (4 thousand euros) and the only tax rate (16 per cent) is an insufficient social and health security system. In the case of loosing a job or becoming paralysed as a result of an incident you simply need pack you bags and leave. There are only few of those who born and few who die at the Svalbard: there are no sufficient structures for pregnant women, no pension and no grave yards. Here 75 per cent of the population is between 20 and 65 years old.