The case, reported in newspaper VG on Tuesday, has stunned and angered politicians, and bewildered many other would-be immigrants who've struggled with their own efforts to secure residence permission for themselves or their families. For them, the permission won by Krekar's family seems to defy logic, and all the rules.
Officials at immigration agency UDI (Utlendingsdirektoratet) granted Krekar's mother-in-law permission to stay in Norway even though Krekar himself is considered a national security threat and is supposed to finally be deported soon, and even though the granting of residence permission defied government policy.
Most angry is former government minister Erna Solberg, who gave the immigration agency UDI explicit instructions that it could only grant residence permission to those who had a job, could support themselves and their families, had no criminal record and who could verify their identities.
All others, Solberg decreed, must be sent back home.
Instead, UDI granted residence permission for at least a year to 182 Iraqi Kurds. Mullah Krekar's mother-in-law, reports newspaper VG, was among them, and she's now living with Krekar and his family in Oslo, who have received state support for years.
UDI won't comment on the case, but Solberg is furious, suggesting that UDI went behind her back in defying her orders, and then tried to keep it quiet.
Bjarne Håkon Hanssen, who succeeded Solberg, says he can't discuss individual cases, but told new bureau NTB that his ministry is "working very intensely" with the 182 Iraqis who were granted residence permission in defiance of the government's "political signals."
Hanssen stressed that the residence permission granted all 182 was only for a year. "The government will soon take a position on what will happen when that permission expires during the course of the autumn and early next year," he said.
