Norwegian Intelligence Focused on the Smuggling of Child Asylum-seekers

(July 8, 2016) - Considering the big numbers arriving in Norway last year, the Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) has focused its attention on the smuggling of child asylum-seekers into Norway and shared its findings with the Europol that now considers illegal immigration as one of nine areas of high priority.

Based on the different travel patterns, Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) identified three main categories of how asylum seekers make it to Norway as their final destination of choice. 

The smallest group: they get a travel package from their country to Norway

This group is the smallest because this method is the most expensive. A trip from Kabul to Germany could cost up to $22,000. Refugees who can afford to have documents and go this route are guaranteed a safe arrival to their destination, but costs vary and are increasing due to the heightened border controls. 

The largest group: those who get to Norway from Europe on their own

This group is smuggled into Schengen areas through smugglers they find on social network pages like Facebook. Once in Europe, they try to continue their journey to Norway on their own. Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) report pointed out that, “aid organizations and others who help refugees often putting unaccompanied minors together with adults. Then they are carried onward with the flow in a natural way.” 

The medium-sized group: Those that are smuggled in stages

This group takes the longest to reach its destination because they are forced to cross several countries before they reach a Schengen area. Once in Europe, they identify “hotspots” in large European cities like the train station in Berlin from where they are picked up by smugglers, family members, or acquaintances. Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) reported that it is common for people in this category to work along the way in order to pay off their debts to their smugglers. At times, they are assigned a group of migrants to take along with them on their journey, thereby turning into human smugglers themselves.

The actual means of transportation varies; some children reported traveling across the Mediterranean on inflatable boats while others spoke of their nights in Balkan forests or small containers. According to a report by Norwegian Intelligence Service (NIS) last week, most asylum seekers come via Sweden, and despite the tight border controls, the bus and train are the most common means of transportation.

Bosnian Jihadists Have Two Passports

According Bosnian newspaper Glas Srpske well known Jihadist Osman Kekic, also known in the Balkans as Abdul Aziz, arrived in Sweden with a newly issued passport of Bosnia and Herzegovina despite the fact that he had his previous passport confiscated in last February.

Kekic is not the only jihadist with two passports.

Another Wahhabi leader, Nusret Imamovic currently in Syria, managed to have two passports as well.

A list of persons and organizations subject to sanctions which the UN Security Council recently released includes Imamovic's name. He is said to have two Bosnia and Herzegovina passports. In one, his date of birth is given as 26 September 1971 and in the other as 26 September 1977, while the passport numbers differ in only one digit.

The number of one passport is 349054 while the other is 3490054. In September 2015, Imamovic was at an address in Syria from where he last communicated in February of this year. According a UN document He has been fighting at the head of a Jabhat Al-Nusra unit since April 2015.

Last week, Kekic was arrested in Sweden, at the airport in Malmo, where he arrived from Tuzla despite the fact that his passport had been confiscated after Turkey extradited him to Bosnia and Herzegovina in February following several failed attempts to cross into Syria to fight there.

Swedish border police became suspicious of him as he appeared nervous and kept changing the line while waiting at the passport control to have his passport, issued to him in March, checked.


Kekic and Imamovic cases are under the investigation of the Ministry of Security, the Prosecutor's Office, the Intelligence and Security Agency (OBA), and the Investigation and Protection Agency (SIPA).