The fate of a young boy with a migration background has occupied Icelanders for months and has now ended the governing coalition. Yazan Tamimi’s parents, who suffer from a degenerative muscle disease, applied for asylum in Iceland last fall. Since they arrived via Spain, where they were first registered, Iceland’s immigration authorities were clear: referring to the Dublin Agreement, they decided in spring that the family should be returned to Spain. Only the government could have granted special protection rights to the boy, who was in the hospital, but a six-month deadline passed without action. Meanwhile, disability and human rights organizations, as well as the treating physician, advocated for the child, believing that deportation would harm him both physically and mentally. Demonstrations were repeatedly held in front of the parliament in Reykjavik.
Initially, the protests had no effect: in mid-September, the Palestinian family was brought to the airport. But just before the deportation, there was a reversal, and the boy was taken back to medical care under police escort. Shortly afterward, the high-profile case found a temporary happy ending, with the Tamimis granted a two-year residence permit.
The back-and-forth over the Palestinian boy illustrates Iceland’s more restrictive immigration policy. Since July 2023, rejected asylum seekers who refuse deportation lose state support. Specifically, 30 days after a negative asylum decision, they receive no housing, food, or healthcare. The law, first introduced in 2018, faced sharp criticism from international human rights organizations. While the responsible minister had assured that local authorities would handle hardship cases, municipalities now see no reason to do so. Shortly after the new regulation was introduced, a dozen migrants made headlines for living on the streets after being evicted from refugee centers, searching for food in trash bins.
The deportation of 180 Venezuelans last November also caused a stir. According to research by the investigative weekly “Heimildin,” the rejected asylum seekers were arrested by police upon arrival in their homeland, their money was confiscated, and they were interrogated for several days. For refugees from the impoverished dictatorship, Iceland had become a safe haven that almost always granted them asylum.
Disagreements over the direction of migration policy have hastened the breakdown of Iceland’s coalition. Only days after the positive decision for Palestinian Yazan, Prime Minister Bjarni Benediktsson of the liberal-conservative Independence Party requested the dismissal of the government and the dissolution of parliament. Until the population is called to vote on November 30, a year before the scheduled date, the Liberal-Conservatives and Centrists will manage the government’s affairs. However, the Left-Greens have stepped down and are focusing on their election campaign.
After a period of unity during challenges like the COVID pandemic, volcanic eruptions, high inflation, and economic slowdown, differences have recently become irreconcilable. Benediktsson’s Liberals and the Left-Greens also clashed over foreign, economic, and energy policies. Last year, Fisheries Minister Svandís Svavarsdóttir, now newly elected leader of the Red-Greens, embarrassed her government colleagues by banning whaling. The ban was short-lived, as the parliamentary ombudsman declared it illegal. The population of 400,000 people has responded to the ongoing disputes with record-low support for the ruling parties, making the upcoming election even more challenging.
