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Border procedures have so far not been used in Slovenia. Irregular migrants are only present at the border police stations for a short time before they are either referred to the asylum procedure or returned to the country of arrival. During that time, they very rarely contact NGOs and the UNHCR. In PIC’s experience, asylum seekers face difficulties in accessing NGOs or UNHCR during the police procedure for practical reasons – their phones are often taken during the procedure, they do not have the contact information, language barrier etc.
Detained asylum seekers are located in the Foreigner Centre in Postojna. Detainees are allowed to use their mobile phones for at least a few hours per day and free internet connection is available to them. They can also use the regular landline phones upon permission from the centre’s staff if they need to make important calls, especially regarding their asylum and detention cases. Detainees are also allowed to meet with visitors during appointed hours in accordance with the daily schedule. As with other asylum applicants, detained asylum applicants can be represented in the first-instance procedure by the PIC, whose lawyers are available to them over phone and can visit them in person, if required. Refugee counsellors and PIC lawyers can visit their clients freely without prior authorisation or limitation regarding the daily schedule.
Upon obtaining a permission from the UOIM, NGOs can be present in the Asylum Home or its branch in order to carry out their activities.
UNHCR does not have an office in Slovenia however it carries out numerous activities and supports several NGOs programmes.[1]
In 2023 UNHCR supported the following organisations:
- PIC in providing information, counselling and representation to asylum seekers during the asylum procedure, beneficiaries of international protection during the family reunification procedure and a mobile blue dot providing information and counselling to people fleeing Ukraine;
- Društvo Ključ in conducting preventive workshops regarding trafficking;
- KD Gmajna/Info Kolpa in their community outreach programme.
- Institute EMMA was providing psycho-social counselling and support to asylum seekers, refugees and people fleeing Ukraine, focusing on victims of gender-based violence.
[1] For more information, see UNHCR, Slovenija, available at: https://www.unhcr.org/si/ and https://help.unhcr.org/slovenia/.