Slovenia’s Ministry of the Interior has rejected all allegations regarding the returns or deportations of applicants for international protection to Croatia.
Through a statement, the Ministry has said that Slovenia treats each case individually, taking into account all the specific circumstances of every case and in accordance with the applicable legislation SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The statement says that the legislation of the European Union related to international protection, which binds EU countries, is clear, adding that the Dublin Regulation stipulates that a request for international protection is handled by only one member country, or more specifically the one that is competent for this issue, following the Dublin Regulation.
It notes that the concept of international protection guarantees applicants the right to be protected in a country that is considered safe, however, not the possibility to choose the EU member countries that should process the application and in which they prefer to use their protection.
As for the handing over of applicants for international protection to Croatia, the Ministry said that it had explained several times that in the process of deciding on the competence to consider the application filed for international protection, checks the existence of systematic deficiencies in the Member States.
The Ministry of the Interior through a statement noted that Croatia is one of the EU countries that are committed to respecting the fundamental rights of applicants for international protection.
In addition, the statement notes that taking into account the fact that the majority of return procedures to Croatia, following the Dublin Regulation refer to international protection applicants in this Croatia as evidenced by the EURODAC Central Record (the European system for comparing fingerprints of asylum seekers) ‘asylum seekers’ it cannot be claimed that these persons in Croatia are denied access to international protection.
According to the Ministry, domestic jurisprudence has also developed in terms of the return of applicants from Slovenia to Croatia following the Dublin Regulation.
Statistical data related to the handovers revealed that it is by no means a systematic handover of applicants for international protection under the Dublin Regulation.
Slovenia’s Ministry of the Interior said that the average duration of the international protection procedure until the issued decision of the Ministry of the Interior this year is 50 days while adding that last year it was 40 days and in 2021, 26 days.
Authorities in Slovenia are continuously working in order to deal with the increased number of migrants in this country.
Source: Schengen Visa News
