Norwegian pension fund, KLP, has excluded two American companies from its portfolios over their alleged violations of human rights and workers’ rights at their refugee reception centres.

Core Civic and GEO Group were excluded from KLP and the KLP funds due to their alleged actions in reception of refugees.

KLP Kapitalforvaltning head of responsible investments, Kiran Aziz, noted that the two companies run refugee reception centres in several states in the USA and are among the largest players in security services.

“Refugees at some of the reception centres are held against their will and without a legal basis,” she said.

“Such random imprisonments are a violation of international law.”

Furthermore, Aziz stated that the UN High Commissioner for Refugees had criticised the companies’ practice of detaining refugees without ensuring their rights.

According to KLP, the pension fund had a dialogue with the firms to try and influence them, but without any results.

KLP believed that the companies had shown little understanding of the accusations directed at them and have denied to KLP that there are objectionable conditions in their operations.

“That the companies have violated several of the most important human rights over a long period of time has been documented by several human rights groups,” Aziz continued.

“They have also been followed up by state actors such as the attorney general in the state of Washington.

“The companies' operations pose an unacceptable risk of contributing to breaches of KLP's guidelines for responsible investments.

“Our assessment is that there is a high risk that the human rights violations will continue and therefore we are excluding the companies.”

KLP and the KLP funds owned shares worth almost NOK 4m in the companies. These shares have now been sold.

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