Two hundred kilometres above the Arctic Circle hundreds of refugees and asylum seekers are finding a new life in northern Norway, but recently the doors have been shutting on those desperate to start fresh in the High North.
Thousands of people in Norway have lived with a secret for almost 70 years. German war children in the High North are an important voice in remembering the liberation of Finnmark and a poignant lesson in history about misdirected anger and the damage it can cause.
The autumn of 1944 large parts of Finnmark and northern Troms were burnt and destroyed by Nazi German forces retreating from onrushing Soviet troops. The civilian population was forced to evacuate or hide.
A narwhal tusk has been stolen from Svalbard, a popular, protected Arctic tourist destination. The governor’s office has asked for the help of expedition cruise ship visitors in identifying the culprit.
In the coming weeks towns on both sides of the Norwegian-Russian border will be marking the 70th anniversary of Soviet troops’ liberation of Pechenga and Eastern Finnmark from Wehrmacht’s forces.
The borders between the countries in the Barents Region must be kept open for goods and people, leader of the Norwegian Barents Secretariat underlines. Local cross-border cooperation is a back-channel for continued interaction between the countries, he argues.
