November 23, 2017
The State Border Control Bill, submitted in discussion of the National Assembly by NSi (Nova Slovenija - Krščanski demokrati) yesterday, enjoys strong support from both members of parliament and the government. The bill extends the deadline for damage claims made by landowners who have seen the erection of the border-related razor wire impact their lands, moving from June 30 to December 31 2017.
The razor wire fence was built in an attempt to regain control over Slovenia's southern border amid the so-called migration crisis in December 2015. Criticism of this the move was also present at yesterday’s Assembly’s session, in which two MPs, Bojana Muršič of the SD (Socialni demokrati) and Franc Trček,of the United Left (Levica), although supporting the bill, called for the removal of the wire. Terček was also critical of government’s refusal to fully disclose all the costs related to building the fence.
Out of around 2,000 potential beneficiaries, only 161 of them filed their claims on time, which made the authorities suspect that the deadline for the process was too short, while the bureaucratic obstacles were too high. The compensation funds have already been guaranteed by the state budget.
