News
Press Release Published: 20 December 2022
EUAA deploys to Slovenia to support with asylum and reception, as the number of applications in Europe rise
The European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) has signed an Operational Plan with the Republic of Slovenia. It becomes the 13th Member State to benefit from the Agency’s operational support with its asylum, reception, and temporary protection activities.
The plan was signed by the EUAA Executive Director, Nina GREGORI and Sanja Ajanović HOVNIK, Minister of Public Administration, currently acting Minister of the Interior.
The Operational Plan comes at the request of the Slovenian Ministry of Interior and aims to support the national authorities in achieving three main objectives, including:
- Implementing quality preliminary and asylum procedures, by helping to develop and provide information to asylum applicants, establishing a team to support in the preliminary aspects of the international protection procedure, and training national officials using core modules of the EUAA Asylum Curriculum.
- Enhancing national capacity to provide adequate reception conditions, by supporting the management and operation of reception facilities, as well as identifying and prioritising vulnerable individuals and unaccompanied minors who benefit from procedural guarantees.
- Implementing the recently extended Temporary Protection Directive, by helping with the provision of agreed-upon information to people fleeing Ukraine, as well as helping to manage the reception facilities where Temporary Protection beneficiaries currently reside.
The EUAA is expected to begin deploying up to 40 personnel consisting of quality assurance, training, reception experts and interpreters.
With the signing of the Operating Plan, Slovenia joins 12 other Member States in receiving EUAA operational support with their asylum, reception and / or temporary protection activities. They include Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czechia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Romania, and Spain. The Agency is finalising an Operational Plan with the Austrian authorities and is also providing support in a third country – Moldova – for the first time in its 11-year history.