The government agreed yesterday to accept Foreign Minister’s Valgerdur Sverrisdóttir’s suggestion that 25 to 30 refugees be accepted this year, and also decided to receive that many refugees annually from now on.
According to Fréttabladid, the project is estimated to cost ISK 35 million (USD 519,000, EUR 394,000).
The cost will be covered by the Foreign Ministry and the Ministry for Social Affairs will organize the reception of the refugees in cooperation with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
It has neither been decided from which countries Iceland will accept refugees, nor in which part of Iceland they will be given a new home. The last refugees that came to Iceland were single mothers and their children from Kosovo and Columbia in 2005.
Iceland received 217 refugees between 1996 and 2006 and 204 between 1956 and 1996.
