STA, February 22, 2018 – Refugee protection remains an issue in Slovenia and discrimination against the Roma and the erased persist, shows the report by the NGO Amnesty International for 2017 released on Thursday.
The report notes that amendments to the aliens act were adopted allowing special measures to be triggered on the border after threats to public order and national security occur.
Under these amendments, which have not been invoked, "Slovenia would be able to deny entry to people arriving at its borders and automatically expel migrants and refugees who enter irregularly without assessing their asylum claims."
Long-standing human rights violations continued to persist against the erased [Wikipedia], former permanent residents of Slovenia mostly originating from other former Yugoslav republics.
Amnesty says the authorities failed to offer new options to the remaining erased after the expiry of special legislation on the erased in 2013 that retroactively reinstated some of their rights.
Roma continue to face widespread discrimination and social exclusion. Many are living in segregated settlements in inadequate housing, lacking security of tenure and access to water, electricity, sanitation and public transport.
On the upside, the National Assembly amended the Ombudsman Act to provide it with a broad mandate to combat discrimination.
However, Amnesty warns that the anti-discrimination framework as a whole still lacked monitoring, policy-making and executive powers as well as adequate resources to be fully effective.
The report is similar to the 2016 report. The treatment of the Roma and the erased have featured prominently for years, while the treatment of refugees has been highlighted as problematic in the past several years.
