NORWAY (Epoch Times) — Droves of African families recently received asylum status from the Norwegian quasi-judicial Appeals Board (UNE), which handles appeals of rejections by the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI).

If these families were not allowed to {www:remain} in Norway, their daughters risk circumcision—a brutal practice that can leave women crippled. Most of these African applicants come from Somalia and Ethiopia, while a few of them are from Nigeria, Sudan, and Mali.

New data from Norway this year shows that 91 percent of Somalian applications have been approved and only seven have been rejected. Last year 84 percent of applicants were accepted into Norway.

The {www:percentage} for Ethiopian applicants are even higher. This year, 436 out of 467 applicants from Ethiopia have had their cases approved by the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration (UDI).