Asylum procedure with applicants for international protection

The first instance international protection procedure is managed by the Ministry of the Interior. The internal organizational unit of the MIA responsible for international protection is the Office for Migration, which is part of the Directorate for Administrative Internal Affairs, Migration and Naturalization. The Office for Migration is further subdivided into the Housing, Supply and Integration Division, which is responsible for accommodating applicants for international protection and the integration of persons with recognized international protection, and the Status Division, which is responsible for substantively deciding applications for international protection.⁴

Prior to making the request, the staff at the Asylum Center conducts a medical examination with the refugee, taking a photo of him and taking his fingerprints for the purpose of verification at EURODAC. Persons under the age of 14 are not fingerprinted.

An unaccompanied minor is accompanied before the start of the procedure by a legal representative who is present in the application and any subsequent actions of the procedure.

The Law on International Protection in the First Instance Procedure does not provide free legal representation of applicants, but it is ensured through the activities of selected NGOs based on a project funded by the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund and the Republic of Slovenia.

In addition to legal representation, the non-governmental organization provides the applicant with information before presenting the application, presenting to him the course of the international protection procedure and the rights and duties that he has. After medical examination, photographing and fingerprinting and informing him, he submits applications for international protection (first interview). The procedure is conducted by an official of the Ministry of the Interior, who first asks the applicant for personal data and information on the route from the country of origin and arrival in the Republic of Slovenia.

This is followed by the main part of the interview, where the applicant independently gives a statement of the reasons for the application. Finally, the interview may be supplemented by additional questions from the official, the legal representative, if present, and the proxy. The procedure is conducted through an interpreter who, at the end of the interview, verbally translates the contents of the minutes to the applicant, who can comment on them. By signing the minutes, the refugee officially gains the status of an applicant for international protection in the Republic of Slovenia.

Upon application, the applicant’s fingerprints are entered into the EURODAC database. If, in accordance with the Dublin Regulation, another EU Member State is recognized as competent, the Ministry of the Interior issues a Dublin decision terminating the procedure in Slovenia and (after its validity) the person is transferred to another competent state.

During the procedure, applicants find accomodation in the Asylum Center in Ljubljana. Prior to submitting an application, the refugee is first housed in the reception rooms of the Asylum Center, separately from applicants who have already submitted an application (usually for a day, exceptionally longer). After the application is submitted, the person is moved to the main part of the Asylum Home.

The asylum centre consists of six departments: for families, for single men, for unaccompanied minors, for single women, for people with special needs and a restricted movement section that is currently not in use. In total it can accommodate 203 people.

In addition to accommodation, applicants for international protection are entitled to receive free food, clothing and footwear, basic hygiene supplies and a monthly allowance. In some cases, the applicant may be housed in another suitable institution or in a private address instead of in the Asylum Home. Applicants are entitled to emergency treatment and may, in individual cases, receive a wider range of treatment. They are further entitled to education and, if nine months have elapsed since the submission of the application and other statutory conditions are fulfilled, to employment and work.

The applicant is issued a card stating his/her status as an applicant for international protection. During the procedure he can move freely throughout the entire territory of the Republic of Slovenia, but must obtain a permit to spend the night outside the Asylum Center. If the applicant arbitrarily leaves the Asylum Home and does not return within three days, his/her application is regarded as withdrawn and the international protection procedure terminated.⁵

In statutory cases, the Ministry of the Interior may issue a decision ordering the applicant to restricted movement. This is most often the case immediately after applying for international protection. The movement restriction takes place in the following cases:

• identification of the applicant,
• suspicion of misrepresentation and abuse of process,
• endangering the lives of others or property,
• carrying out the Dublin procedure and handing over the applicant to the competent State or
• carrying out the safe third country procedure and handing over the applicant to the safe third country.

The movement may be restricted to the applicant for three months with the possibility of a one-month extension. Restricted applicants are housed at the Postojna Aliens Center, which is a closed-type police accommodation primarily intended to accommodate refugees in return procedures. As a more lenient measure compared to accommodation at the Aliens Center, the Ministry of the Interior may restrict the applicant’s movement to the Asylum Center (accommodation in the Asylum Center by prohibiting him from leaving). Unaccompanied minors may be restricted to movement only in the Asylum Center and not by accommodation at the Aliens Center. With the exception of free movement, restricted applicants are entitled to the same scope of rights as other applicants.

Where the intention to seek international protection is expressed by a person who is accommodated as a foreigner in a return process at the Aliens Center, he/she will not normally move to the Asylum Center after submitting the application. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs takes the application for international protection at the premises of the Aliens Center and then issues her a restriction on movement (on suspicion of deception and abuse of procedure), so that the person remains as an applicant for international protection at the Aliens Center for the duration of the restriction measure.

If, upon submission of the request, the MIA comes to the conclusion that it will decide on the matter (i.e. it does not issue a Dublin or safe third country decision), the matter is assigned to the decision maker at the Status Division. The latter, after examining the case, invites the applicant for a personal interview (second interview). In this face-to-face interview, the decision maker is given details of the reasons for the asylum request by the applicant, and also any other facts and circumstances that may be relevant to the decision. At the end of the personal interview, questions may also be asked by the legal representative, if present, and the proxy. The procedure is conducted through an interpreter who, at the end of the interview, verbally translates the contents of the minutes to the applicant, who can comment on them.

In an expedited procedure. the decision may be made by the decision-maker without conducting a personal interview on the basis of available evidence or when he rejects the application as manifestly unfounded.

In order to reject an application as manifestly ill-founded, statutory reasons must be given.

The applicant may file all the evidence to substantiate his/her application within the time limit set in the application, in the case of a personal interview until the end of this interview. All submitted documentation, including any information about the country of origin, can be submitted by the applicant in a foreign language, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs translates the documentation without charge for the applicant into Slovenian.

After conducting a personal interview and before issuing the decision, the decision maker sends the applicant information on the country of origin on the basis of which he intends to justify his decision, translated into Slovenian. The applicant may submit his/her comments on the submitted information within the set deadline.

Third-country nationals in the Republic of Slovenia may obtain two different international protection statuses – refugee status or subsidiary protection status. The decision maker establishes the conditions for recognition of international protection in a single procedure, first assessing the conditions for recognition of refugee status and only if they are not fulfilled the conditions for granting subsidiary protection.

Refugee status is granted to a person without a time limit, whereas the subsidiary protection status is granted for a fixed period (different from case to case, usually for a period of one to three years) with the possibility of extension. The extent of the rights of persons with subsidiary protection status is equal with persons with refugee status.

A negative decision, i.e. a rejection of the application for international protection may be protested after the case has been assessed in the ordinary course of action or when the application wasa rejected as manifestly unfounded in an accelerated procedure.