About 7,000 Ukrainian refugees are applying for protection in Slovenia
STAMarch 28, 2022 – About 7,000 refugees from Ukraine have applied for temporary protection in Slovenia so far, State Secretary at the Ministry of the Interior Franc Kangler said at a meeting of the EU Interior Council in Brussels on Monday.
At the meeting, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson presented an index showing the pressure of the refugee crisis resulting from Russia’s invasion of EU countries. Poland is currently facing the biggest pressure, followed by Austria and the Czech Republic.
The Slovenian commissioner did not specifically mention it, Kangler said at a press conference in Brussels, while the ministerial meeting was still in progress.
He said that around 7,000 Ukrainian refugees had applied for temporary protection in Slovenia, not including those who had registered with relatives at police stations.
Kangler said that the latter often left Slovenia, registered in Austria and then returned to Slovenia. He emphasized the importance of a single register at European level.
About 50,000 people from Ukraine crossed Slovenia, most of whom, according to the state secretary, went to Italy, France and Spain.
Kangler talked about this with Croatian Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic, who told him that there are about 15,000 Ukrainian refugees in Croatia, which means that the situation in Slovenia is comparable to Croatian ones.
Bozinovic later told Croatian journalists that about 11,000 Ukrainian refugees had applied for temporary protection in Croatia.
Interior officials also discussed aid to Moldova today, where some 360,000 people had fled Ukraine before the war. Kangler said that the government has yet to decide that Slovenia will accept refugees from Moldova.
One of these was financial support to EU countries in caring for refugees. By activating the decree on temporary protection, Slovenia has secured financing from the budget, said Kangler.
“However, given the burden and the number of refugees coming to Slovenia, we would like to try to find European funds that Slovenia could use,” he added.
As one of the possible options, he mentioned funding from the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund, where an additional 200m euros are available, remaining from last year and the year before last.
At the meeting, Kangler also offered assistance to the Slovenian ITF fund in demining Ukraine after the war. Ukrainian Interior Minister Denis Monastyrsky called on ministers to start thinking about how Europe will tackle unexploded ordnance.