“After hiding below the horizon for two long months, the sun has finally risen in Hammerfest, casting a pale pink hue over the Arctic landscape surrounding the world's northernmost refugee shelter. From her modest room, Huda al-Haggar admires the wonderland of snow and ice, a sight so different from her native Yemen, where a Saudi airstrike destroyed her home, forcing her to flee with her young son. “It's wonderful when I wake up in the morning and see this picture, the sea and the mountains. It's a wonderful place”, the young woman says as 5-year-old Omar plays with Lego on her lap. The wooden barracks where al-Haggar and her son live used to house oil workers until Europe's migrant crisis reached the jagged shores of northern Norway, where the continent drops dramatically into the Arctic Ocean. Waiting for their asylum claims to be processed, hundreds of people in emergency shelters in Hammerfest and neighboring towns are slowly getting used to the extreme climate and unfamiliar customs of the High North. They say they have adapted to the cold – the temperature rarely drops below minus 10 degrees C (14 F) along the coast, though it gets much colder further inland. It's the darkness that throws them off. Rami Saad, a 23-year-old Syrian from Damascus with a neatly groomed beard and tight slacks, says workers at the Hammerfest center warned him about the polar night but he didn't believe them until late November, when “suddenly there was no sun”. The lack of daylight messed up his body clock, like the day when he rolled out of bed at 11 and ambled to the cafeteria to have lunch. “But there was nobody there”, Saad says, giggling. “It was 11 p.m”.

Few of the asylum-seekers expected to end up here, 280 miles (460 kilometers) north of the Arctic Circle, when they left their homelands in the Middle East, Africa and Asia to escape violence, poverty, forced marriages or armies they didn't want to join. Some were relocated by Norwegian authorities after entering the country from Sweden in the south. Others blazed a new trail into Western Europe by first entering Russia and then crossing its Arctic border with Norway. More than 5,000 people, mostly Syrians and Afghans, used that route last year before the government tightened the border in November and started deporting those who were not deemed to be in need of protection in Norway. Though that's just a trickle compared to the 1 million people who entered Europe last year from the south across the Mediterranean Sea, it forced Norwegian authorities to quickly set up migrant shelters in small towns separated by mile upon mile of untouched wilderness”. – Karl Ritter via The Associated Press



In this photo taken Thursday, February 4, 2016 in Hammerfest, northern Norway, refugee Huda al Haggar and her son Omar from Sanaa in Yemen talk to the Associated Press at the northernmost refugee camp in the world. Waiting for their asylum claims to be processed, hundreds of people in emergency shelters in Hammerfest and neighboring towns are slowly getting used to the extreme climate and unfamiliar customs of the High North. They say they have adapted to the cold – the temperature rarely drops below minus 10 degrees C (14 F) along the coast, though it gets much colder further inland. It’s the darkness that throws them off. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





In this photo taken Tuesday, February 2, 2016 Afghan asylum seekers hold a laptop which shows a picture of a grandparent, as men return from a fishing trip, and show their catch at their temporary accommodation at the Altnes camp on the island of Seiland, northern Norway. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





In this photo taken Tuesday, February 2, 2016 Afghan asylum seekers hold a laptop which shows a picture of a grandparent, as men return from a fishing trip at their temporary accommodation at the Altnes camp on the island of Seiland, northern Norway. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





In this photo taken Thursday, February 4, 2016, showing a view towards the refugee camp in Hammerfest, northern Norway, and an inlet from the Barents Sea. After hiding below the horizon for two long months, the sun has finally risen in Hammerfest, casting a pale pink hue over the Arctic landscape surrounding the world’s northernmost refugee shelter. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





In this photo taken Tuesday, February 2, 2016, Arzoo Abdul Hakim holds a freshly caught cod fish as he chases other children round the temporary Altnes camp refugee camp on the island of Seiland, northern Norway. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





In this photo taken Tuesday, February 2, 2016 Stig Erland Hansen, centre, owner of the Altnes camp, returns from a fishing trip with asylum seekers who show off their catch on the island of Seiland, northern Norway. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





In this photo taken Thursday, February 4, 2016, asylum seekers leave the refugee camp in Hammerfest, to walk to the town's centre, in northern Norway. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





In this photo taken Tuesday, February 2, 2016, the morning ferry arrives at the island of Seiland, northern Norway, where a number of asylum seekers are housed in temporary accommodation at the Altnes camp. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





In this photo taken Tuesday, February 2, 2016, asylum seekers gather round a fire as they cook a meal overlooking the temporary Altnes camp refugee camp on the island of Seiland, northern Norway. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





Afghan asylum seeker Roheek Yausofi waits his turn for food cooked on an open fire, with fish caught the day before by his father, on the island of Seiland, northern Norway, Tuesday, February 2, 2016. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





In this photo taken Tuesday, February 2, 2016, Afghan asylum seeker Helanar Nawabi, pokes her head round the door of the main entrance of her in temporary accommodation at the Altnes camp on the island of Seiland, northern Norway. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





In this photo taken Thursday, February 4, 2016, showing a view of the children's play area of the refugee camp in Hammerfest, northern Norway. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





In this photo taken Tuesday, February 2, 2016, Afghan asylum seekers Sufya Nawabi, her daughter Helanar, pose for a photograph as they speak to the Associated Press in her temporary apartment at the Altnes camp on the island of Seiland, northern Norway. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)





in this photo taken Tuesday, February 2, 2016, asylum seekers take their children fro a walk near the temporary accommodation at the Altnes camp on the island of Seiland, northern Norway. (Photo by Alastair Grant/AP Photo)