Salary costs have increased significantly
Asylum seekers have been busy protesting. mbl.is/Eggert Jóhannesson
The salary costs of government employees handling asylum seeker issues in this country have increased significantly in recent years. Although public funding for the issue decreased by approximately a third between 2022 and 2023, the number of full-time equivalents increased, and the proportion of salary costs increased.
This is pointed out by Róbert Bragason, a board member of the Taxpayers' Association, in an interview with Morgunblaðið, but the information is obtained from the Open Accounts portal, which is maintained by the Ministry of Finance.
A total of ISK 2,085 million was spent on the issue in 2023, and the cost decreased by ISK 1,077 million from the previous year when it was 3,162 million. In the period 2017 to 2023, the total funding was almost ISK 21.5 billion, according to information from the association.
The Taxpayers' Association's summary states that the wage costs for this were around ISK 520 million in 2023, up from almost 450 million the previous year. In 2022, the number of full-time equivalents was 37.8 on average over the year, but increased to 43.3 full-time equivalents in 2023. The same is true for purchased expert assistance, which increases from ISK 680 million in 2022 to ISK 880 million in 2023.
