In the last week several articles and reports appeared in print media on the subject of the protection of asylum applicants and the protection of their rights and freedoms. Concerning this matter the Human Rights Ombudsman Dr Zdenka Čebašek-Travnik gives the following position statement.

The area of asylum in the Republic of Slovenia is regulated by the International Protection Act, which entered into force on 4 January 2008. The act introduces a more restrictive asylum system, with lower standards than the previous ones, and thus follows the EU directives. However, there are not enough reasonable grounds for this, because favourable standards, which were enacted by the previous Asylum Act, were not contrary to the standards included in these directives. Especially concerning is the restriction of free legal assistance, which under the new law is limited only to the procedures before the administrative and supreme court. Already in the previous applicable Asylum Act the right to free legal assistance in the first instance was abolished. In 2006 the Commission against Racism and Intolerance of the Council of Europe warned of the harmful consequences of such regulation. The manner of providing free legal assistance is also in dispute. Free legal assistance is provided through counsellors for refugees, who are appointed by the Minister of Interior. He also determines their payment. Especially problematic is that in the procedures counsellors for refugees will represent the applicants for the recognition of the right to international protection against the Ministry of Interior, therefore the Ministry that shall appoint them for this job.

According to the International Protection Act, the scope of legal remedies, available to the applicants, is also restricted.  The Human Rights Ombudsman of the Republic of Slovenia believes that the applicants for the recognition of international protection should have enough time to file an action challenging the issued decision in an accelerated procedure. It can be filed within three days of the notification, and to file the action against the decision, issued in an ordinary procedure, a 15-day time limit applies. Fifteen-day time limit also applies for filing a constitutional complaint, which is contrary to the Constitutional Court Act, under which it is possible to file a constitutional complaint within 60 days from the day of notification of a particular act, against which a constitutional complaint is possible. Such regulation means violation of the right to equal protection of rights pursuant to Article 22 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia and the right to legal remedies pursuant to Article 25 of the Constitution of the Republic of Slovenia.

The Human Rights Ombudsman points out that the main goal of the act should not be just in the harmonisation of asylum legislation with other European Union Member States, because the European standards in asylum affairs are lower than the international standards, which the Republic of Slovenia as the signatory of the Geneva Convention (the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees) and the New York Protocol (Protocol I Relating to the Status of Refugees, signed in 1967) has to ensure.

Within the framework of regular programme and tasks performed as the national preventive mechanism under the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment the Human Rights Ombudsman is planning to visit the Asylum Centre this year, at the time of which the conditions in the Asylum Centre and the treatment of applicants for the recognition of the right to international protection will be under careful inspection.