Author
Differential treatment of specific nationalities is not based on official policies or guidelines. Nevertheless, some patterns and trends are observed in practice.
With the exception of the first period of relocation from Italy and Greece in 2015-2017, when some Iraqi nationals were issued negative decisions, all relocated applicants, mostly Syrians and Eritreans, have since been granted international protection. Other Syrian nationals whose asylum applications have been examined in Slovenia have also been granted international protection, as have the few Eritrean citizens who have not arrived through relocation. The practice changed, however, in December 2019 when the first Eritreans were issued with negative decisions. These were the first decisions issued to Eritreans since the end of the relocation scheme, and, as such, were not part of the relocation scheme.
Until the end of 2017, Slovenian authorities had still not started issuing decisions in the cases of persons fleeing Turkey in the wake of the attempted coup d’état of July 2016. Turkey was the fourth main nationality of asylum seekers, representing 102 of the 1,476 applications lodged in 2017. Many Turkish applicants, including families with children, have been waiting for the conclusion of their cases for more than one year, without any substantial explanation for the delay on the part of the authorities. In 2018, during which 70 Turkish nationals applied for asylum, the Migration Office issued 12 negative decisions to asylum seekers from Turkey and granted refugee status in 12 cases. In 2019, 28 applicants from Turkey were granted refugee status in Slovenia either by the Administrative Court or by the Migration Office.
In May and June of 2018 there was a large increase in asylum seekers from Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia. The Ministry of the Interior issued the majority of them with detention orders and processed their applications in an accelerated procedure, rejecting their applications as manifestly unfounded. Judicial review was filed against the detention orders and in most cases the Administrative Court ruled in favour of the asylum seekers, ordering their immediate release. The practice ended in July 2018.