Slovenia takes in first refugees under the EU’s relocation plan

28 refugees from Syria and Iraq have arrived in Slovenia

The refugees will be accommodated at the Ljubljana Vič asylum center. Foto: BoBo

Slovenia took in its first group of refugees under the EU's refugee relocation plan. They were airlifted from Greece to Slovenia on Thursday. The group of 28 refugees includes families with children.

The refugees will be accommodated at the Ljubljana Vič asylum center. After being processed, the families will be transferred to the asylum center in Logatec. Single male refugees will stay in Vič.

According to Nina Gregori, the director of the Directorate for Administrative Interior Affairs, Migration and Naturalization, every asylum-seeker will be processed individually. Therefore, it is not yet certain whether all of them will be granted refugee status. After obtaining refugee status, all refugees will be moved to integration houses in Ljubljana and Maribor, where they will be able to stay up to 15 months.

During the first three months of their stay, the Slovenian Philanthropy will carry out an integration program. A total of 480,000 euros have been allocated to the program, with 75 percent of the money coming from the EU. Additionally, every EU member state gets 6,000 euros for every refugee taken in.

After this initial 3-month period, the refugees will be able to move into private housing and receive a housing subsidy of 288 euros.

The Interior Ministry has said that each refugee relocated to Slovenia has already passed a background check. "All relevant authorities have cooperated in completing these background checks. The refugees were interviewed and a few had international background checks run on them. They were all cleared," state secretary Boštjan Šefic told Radio Slovenia.

A total of 567 refugees will be relocated to Slovenia under the EU's refugee relocation plan in 2016 and 2017. They will arrive in three groups. The first group of refugees, 40 in all, was expected to arrive in Slovenia in April, but their arrival has been delayed due to procedural issues. According to Šefic, it will cost Slovenia about 8 million euros to accommodate all 567 refugees.

Group of Eritreans still in Italy
According to Radio Slovenia, another group of ten refugees from Eritrea was due to arrive in Slovenia last month. It is not yet known when they will be resettled to Slovenia. Another group of refugees from Greece is due to arrive in Slovenia in about two months.

G. C., L. L.; translated by D. V.