The administrator, who has worked for Migrationsverket for 30 years, also admits assaulting a female colleague after she reported him for making racist remarks.

The first incident came when the proud asylum-seeking parents asked the Swede who he thought their newborn baby looked like during an interview. Rather than picking either the mother or the father as expected, the man replied “Saddam Hussein,” according to a report by The Local.

On another occasion, the administrator was apparently perturbed by a woman wearing a headscarf in the reception area, and afterwards asked the female colleague who dealt with her, “How does it feel to talk to ‘one of those’?”

The co-worker, who the man had also boasted to about his quip to the Iraqi parents, reported him for both incidents. After he received a reprimand from the bosses for his actions, the administrator then deliberately pushed the woman twice in front of other shocked employees as he passed her in the corridor.

The man has admitted to all the accusations but claims the Saddam Hussein comment was meant as a joke. He apparently acknowledges that it was inappropriate, but maintains that women conducting business with authorities should not be wearing headscarves.

Supervisors have had numerous other conversations with the man about his attitude towards asylum seekers and his colleagues since 2007, according to a report from the disciplinary committee obtained by The Local.

“The incidents described above show, according to the judgement of the section head, that the reprimands have had no effect,” the section head wrote in his report, adding that “under no circumstances can violent behaviour and the like be tolerated in the workplace”.

The man has been transferred to a role where he has no public contact while disciplinary measures are considered.

Norway has been the destination of choice for Icelandic ex-pats looking for better employment and housing following the banking crash.

Given the popularity of moving to Norway, DV decided to compile some figures to find out how much better-off Icelanders in Norway are than their friends back home. There are great differences in daily costs, set charges and wages between the two countries.

A lot of products and services cost more in Norway, while wages there are higher than in Iceland — by as much as 50 percent.

The cost of housing in Norway is more than 70 percent higher than in Iceland and the cost of electricity, water and waste disposal is nearly 80 percent more in Norway. Beer in bars, cafés and nightclubs costs at least one third more in Norway.

There are, DV concludes, more things to take into account than might first meet the eye when deciding whether or not to up sticks and move to Norway for purely economic reasons.

Jóhanna, who is from Colombia, has lived in Iceland for around a year and studies Icelandic at the University of Iceland. She has, along with her sister and a group of allies, been fighting to get a residence permit for her young daughter, Yaliana. But the Directorate of Immigration has repeatedly rejected the request on the grounds that only the children of foreign students studying for a Ph.D in Iceland can get residency permits for their children. Yalina is, however, in Iceland over the Christmas and New Year period on a special visiting visa.

Yesterday Ögmundur Jónasson, the Minister of the Interior, described the law as absurd; adding, “I am not particularly happy with this clause in the laws on foreigners. There is also a lot more in the laws which has proven unfit, so we have decided to subject the whole block of laws to a radical review,” he told RÚV.

Ögmundur says that no students were previously allowed to get residence permits for their children until 2008, when an exception was made for doctor’s level studies.

Ögmundur says the law was changed as part of a drive to encourage more people to study for Ph.D.s in Iceland; but adds that the law is now dated and in need of change — along with many other aspects of the laws on foreigners.

He says he hopes to flesh out the laws and orientate residency permit allocation rules more towards social values and away from primarily serving the needs of employers and the economy.

(Photo not directly connected to story. For illustration purposes only.)

Hell’s Angels leader Leif Ivar Kristiansen’s case will come before the Reykjavik District Court today, according to the court schedule. A similar case is also being brought by another Hell’s Angel, Jan Anfinn Wahl.

Both men were stopped on arrival in Iceland last February, spent the night in police cells in Reykjanesbær and were sent back to Norway the following day. Morten Furuholmen, Kristiansen’s lawyer, accompanied him on his trip; but he was allowed into the country, Vísir.is reports.

The decision not to allow the pair into Iceland was taken by the Directorate of Immigration. They unsuccessfully appealed the decision to the then-Ministry of Justice (now a part of the Ministry of the Interior). Following that, they decided to take their cases against the Icelandic state to the Reykjavik District Court.

Jan Anfinn Wahl was arrested as he tried to enter Iceland for the case yesterday evening. His lawyer told RÚV it was a case of the Icelandic authorities attempting to stop his client giving evidence in his own court case.

In May this year Leif Ivar Kristiansen was sentenced to four years and nine months in prison, according to Aftenposten. He was sentenced for drugs violations and robbery; but protested his innocence throughout. He will therefore not be present in Reykjavík.

It is assumed the Norwegian court’s decision will not directly affect the Icelandic case, because it came over a year after the disputed border control decision was made.

A Directorate of Labour specialist says that the creation of jobs in the service sector in Iceland has led to the number of foreigners moving to the country equalling the number leaving — despite the ongoing economic difficulties.

The Icelandic Sociological Society last Thursday held a symposium on economic developments in Iceland, with special emphasis on unemployment. Karl Sigurðsson from the Directorate of Labour spoke at the event on the subject of relocations to and from Iceland and quoted from Statistics Iceland figures on foreign nationals.

“What is perhaps remarkable about the figures is how many have immigrated to the country in the three years since the economic crash. And the number of foreigners has gone down very little in the last two years,” he told RÚV, saying that it is quite remarkable under the circumstances.

In 2009 nearly twice as many foreign nationals moved from Iceland than to it. The figure normalised slightly last year, when 3,000 foreigners moved to Iceland and 3,500 moved away; and so far this year the arrival and departure numbers are more or less equal.

Some of the people are moving to Iceland to be reunited with family and there has also been a lot of demand for people in all sorts of service jobs, Karl says.

Asked if the figures surprise him, Karl said: “Yes, you could say that. We expected that there would be more foreigners leaving the country than there actually were. And not so many people moving to the country after the collapse.”

The figures contrast with native Icelanders, who are still leaving the country in greater numbers than those moving home.

Karl Sigurdsson, section chief at the the Icelandic Directorate of Labour, examined the figures closely. He told RUV that part of the reason for the Statistics Iceland findings is quite natural; for example because it is young adults who are most likely to go overseas to study or search for work. The last group is largely made up of artisans, technically-trained people and medical professionals, he believes.

Sigurdsson says that the figures for emigration so far this year indicate that there will still be a net outflow of people from Iceland.

Young parents with children are the largest group of people leaving the country, RUV reports. According to the Statistics Iceland figures 200 more pre-school aged children moved away from Iceland last year than in an average year.

Sigurdsson believes it is hard to say whether most of those Icelanders will return home again. It is always somewhat likely that people will stay permanently in their adopted countries; especially if conditions at home do not improve, he says.

Most Icelandic people moving overseas go to Norway or other Nordic countries. Elsewhere in Europe and North America are also popular choices. While life in Iceland is still excellent by most common international criteria, wages and quality of life in Norway are among the highest in the world and the gap to Iceland has grown considerably since the banking crisis hit.

A report by Sveriges Radio (SR) claims that such practices are becoming more widespread in the country, with undocumented workers living in squalor and receiving very low wages.

Stockholm’s head of border police, Jerk Wiberg, said such workers are often being exploited and that a number of arrests have been made. “This is a new phenomenon,” Wiberg told the Kaliber programme. “Last year we did not carry out a single raid at a car wash. This year we have made 23,” he added.

“People in these car washes are working under conditions that amount to pure human trafficking,” added Conny Svensson at the Gothenburg tax office.

The country’s domestic intelligence agency, PET, carried out an 18-month investigation into the surveillance activities of Redox, and have confirmed that charges will be brought against at least one 25 year-old, according to the Copenhagen Post. Several members of the Antifascist Action (AFA) group are also accused of disrupting the meetings of right-wing groups by using violent methods. It is believed that AFA may have used information supplied by Redox to plan their attacks, with the 25 year-old acting as the go-between.

Banking details and PINs, as well as information on, and photographs of, the families and activities of far-right activists, were uncovered in a raid of Redox premises by police. They suspect that such details were obtained through covert surveillance.

Some of the information from the database has been used to smear high-profile figures in the Danish press. One case is that of Dan Jensen, who lost his job after being exposed by tabloid Ekstra Bladet as being an active member of the Danish Front.

Politiken also used the Redox information for a story about a secret right-wing network, known as ORG, last month. The organisation apparently has links to violent white power groups and wants to purge the country of immigrants.

Redox claim they obtained the information from a source within ORG, but Politiken acknowledged at the time of publication that the group was under investigation for illegal surveillance methods.

The refugees had been left to fend for themselves in a dangerous gully on the Radopos peninsula on the Greek island of Crete.

The group was made up of 30 men, 16 women (including two pregnant women) and 12 children — the youngest of whom are just a year old. The refugees come from Syria and Afghanistan.

A statement from the Icelandic coastguard says that the people are in good health, given their situation.

The location made the rescue operation extremely difficult and worsening sea conditions made the last stage particularly dangerous. Despite the conditions, the rescue operation went well and the people were moved to the town of Souda.

Aegir is currently patrolling European frontiers as part of Iceland’s obligation to the Schengen Zone. The ship will continue its European role until the end of October.

In news not linked directly to yesterday’s bomb attack, Mullah Krekar, who came to Norway as a refugee from Iraq, has been deemed a threat to national security since suggesting in a press conference that Erna Solberg would be killed if she deported him back to his home country.

Speaking to foreign journalists in Oslo last year when Ms Solberg was a government minister, Krekar said, “If a leader like Erna Solberg sends me out, and I die, she will suffer the same fate.” He later clarified, “If I die, those who are the reason for that will suffer the same fate,” adding that he had no plans to carry out an assassination himself, but that his followers might.

Krekar believes the Iraqi authorities may execute him if he is deported, but, despite this, he remains highly critical of Norwegian society. Siv Jensen, whose Progress Party has been identified by the cleric as one of his Norwegian enemies, first reported Krekar’s threat against Solberg to the police after a video of his speech was leaked on the internet; Krekar excluded the Norwegian media from the conference.

The Iraqi could face up to 15 years in jail if found guilty of inciting terrorist acts and making threats. His defence lawyer, however, claims his client’s remarks are in line with the teachings of the Koran and were merely a response to threats issued against him.

In a press release this week, Solberg said she is glad the matter is being pursued. “If the police believe Krekar has broken the law then it’s good that he’s indicted,” she said, adding that “this is a question for the courts and not politicians.”

Jensen, along with many other politicians, has been keen to get Krekar deported from Norway. Officials have so far been unable to do so, however, as the Iraqi authorities have failed to supply assurances that he will not be executed on his return.