If the director of taxation gets what she wants, refugees will also get the new national ID card – E24
– It is less important to us who you were where you came from, as long as we know who you are in Norway, says director of the Tax Administration Nina Schanke Funnemark.
Last week, Aftenposten / E24 reported on Aso Ibrahimi, who does not have a bank account. He came as an asylum seeker in 2015. But because he lacked a passport from his home country Iran, he only received a residence card from the Norwegian authorities and not a valid Norwegian ID.
931 refugees in Norway are in the same position as him, figures from the UDI show. Without a valid ID, it can be difficult for them to get a job, rent a home or set up a bank account.
Director of Taxation Nina Schanke Funnemark believes it is high time that refugees and other foreign citizens who live in and have a connection to Norway also receive a national ID card.
– It is important to have access to fundamental rights. At the same time, it is important to combat economic crime, she says.
The right person for the right identity
Since November last year, Norwegians have been offered the long-awaited national ID card. The card is as secure as a passport, and it comes in two versions: one that can be used to travel in Europe, and one that cannot be used to travel with.
So far, only Norwegian citizens get it. The Director of Taxes believes that the scheme should be expanded.
– As administrators of the National Register, we are concerned that those who have a birth number or D-number, but who are not Norwegian citizens, can identify themselves. This type of identification can help us with that, she says.
D-number is a Norwegian ID number that you get if you have been granted temporary residence or have another temporary connection to Norway.
Funnemark believes that the most important thing is not who the people were before they came to Norway.
– It is important that you connect this to biometrics. Then it is less important that we have ID papers from the country they come from, as long as we know that it is a person who is linked to a number. In this way, we can be sure of who is who in Norway, she says.
Biometrics can, for example, be fingerprints or a high-resolution image of your face, as you have in your passport.
– Can get fake papers
Funnemark believes that it will be more difficult to commit financial crime if foreigners also receive a valid ID card that links their persons to an identity in the National Register.
– If you do not have ID proof, you can quickly get fake papers, for example to get a job. It can mean that you work under someone else’s identity, that you work illegally, she says.
Funnemark believes it will also give these people access to rights they would not have received without a valid ID. She points out that there are more people who depend on the information in the National Register, such as Nav, the police and the banks.
Working against money laundering
DNB is one of those that depend on the information in the National Register. The Money Laundering Act requires the bank to confirm the customers’ identity.
At the same time, they are required to offer basic banking services.
– We recognize that it is necessary to balance the requirements for financial inclusion, at the same time as the money laundering risk must be managed. Contributing to crime prevention is also important for our social mission.
This is what DNB’s communications director Vibeke Hansen Lewin says. She explains that the bank’s requirement that new customers must present valid identification is based on a risk assessment, as required by money laundering legislation.
She welcomes the proposal from the Tax Administration and believes it will make it easier to combine new customers.
– If the Norwegian authorities can confirm the identity, for example in the form of a national ID card, this allows the bank to establish customer relationships and provide access to the bank’s ordinary product range, she says.
Waiting for the green light from the Storting
As head of the National Population Register, Funnemark’s tax director is ready to be part of the loans in the scheme with a national ID card. Now she is just waiting for the green light from the Storting. She says that both the Tax Administration, the police and Nav cooperate well on this.
– This is something we have worked on for a long time with several agencies, she says.
The solution the tax director requests can be on the stairs soon.
– The Ministry is currently working on a consultation note on foreign citizens’ right to a national ID card. It must also be addressed for a solution for that matter, says State Secretary Astrid Bergmål in the Ministry of Justice.
This winter, there will be a hearing on the proposals for regulations on foreign citizens’ right to a national ID card.