How to apply for asylum in Slovenia?

The purpose of asylum is to provide protection to those individuals to whom protection is not provided by their countries of origin.

You have the right to apply for asylum. In order for you to qualify for asylum, you need to have specific reasons to fear persecution or serious harm in your home country, including human rights violations, armed conflict or persecution. These reasons may be related to, for instance, your race, your religion, your membership of a particular social group your home country, your political views or your nationality. If you face a real risk of suffering serious harm in your home country, you may qualify for a form of international protection. If you left your country only for economic reasons, then there are not sufficient grounds for you to be recognized as a refugee or person in need of subsidiary protection.

If possible, you should say that you wish to seek asylum immediately at the border, upon entry into Slovenia, or in the transit zone of the airport. If you are already in the territory of Slovenia and you wish to seek asylum, you should as soon as possible go to the nearest police station and apply for asylum there. If you are detained, you may also seek asylum in a detention centre.

You can express your need for asylum at any point, from the moment you enter the country. You can apply for asylum before the Police or at any other governmental body or a local authority, who has a duty to inform the Police.

All the procedures with the authorities must be conducted in a language you understand.

Please tell the authorities if you are in Slovenia against your will or you have any special needs (for example, you are pregnant, you need to take medication to control a medical condition, you cannot hear, or speak, you have a physical disability, you are in severe mental distress, or have any other conditions which would require special attention).

The Police will conduct a short preliminary procedure with you. The procedures with the Police will always be the same, no matter where you express your intention to apply for asylum. At the beginning of the preliminary procedure police will take your fingerprints and photos of you to determine if you have already submitted application for international protection in any other EU country. They will fill in a registration form and ask you about your identity, your travel route and point of entry into Slovenia and gather other information relevant for the procedure.

You have the right to an interpreter. All the procedures with the authorities must be conducted in a language you understand.

If you are a child (you are not 18 yet), and travelling without your parents, or any other family, the Police will inform a local child protection agency. A social worker will arrive at the police station to be present during the preliminary procedure and to ensure that decisions are taken in your best interest.

After the preliminary procedure with the Police, you will be transferred to one of the branches of the Asylum Home.

Upon the arrival you will be:

• informed about the reception facility rules and your obligations,
• accommodated in the reception facility, after the inspection of your belongings by a security officer,
• undergo a health inspection to determine your medical condition and needs. Please explain to the doctor about possible health issues and needs, also issues that resulted from persecution,
• provided with an accommodation package with food and essential hygiene supplies and,
• provided with fresh linen and towels.

You will be staying in the reception area until you submit your application for international protection. During the time you spend in the reception area you are not advised to leave the area of the facility. Upon the accommodation in the reception area, you will be informed that if you decide to leave the reception facility it will be considered as a withdrawal of an asylum application. This means that if the Police stops you, you will be treated as an irregular migrant who is illegally staying in Slovenia.

During the time spent in the reception area you will receive an invitation to submit your application for international protection.

Before you submit your application for international protection you will receive information about the asylum procedure, rules of the Dublin procedure, your rights and obligations and deadlines if you decide to use any legal remedies. All the information will be provided by an official of the Ministry of the Interior or a representative of a non-governmental organization in a presence of an interpreter.

A qualified official of the Ministry of the Interior will accept your application for international protection. An interpreter for a language you understand will participate in the process. If you are an unaccompanied, child protection authorities will appoint a legal guardian, who will also be present during the process.

In addition to the official and the interpreter, your plenipotentiary may be present when submitting your application. You can also request that a person of your own choosing to be present. With your consent, a representative of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), another official, scientific workers and students may also be present.

If you wish, the Ministry of the Interior will ensure an official and/or interpreter of the same gender in the proceedings.

During the application process you will be asked about your personal information, your travel routes from your home country and about your entry to Slovenia. You will be asked to present any personal documents, information about your family members, potential asylum application that you have already submitted in other countries or Slovenia and the reasons why are you applying for international protection.

All of your personal data and statements are considered confidential. Only officials will access them. No information will be transferred to your country of origin.

Once you submit an asylum application you will be accommodated in one of the accommodation units of the Asylum Home or if you are minor in a suitable accommodation. Asylum Home units are open facilities where you will wait for a decision to be made on your asylum claim. You will be provided with shelter, food, clothing, and any other necessities free of charge.

You may leave the Asylum Home once you have an identity document issued by the Slovenian authorities, or other official documents confirming that you are an asylum seeker in Slovenia. It is very important that you do not go out of the Asylum Home without such documents from the authority proving that you are an asylum seeker in Slovenia.

The Slovenian law says that unless you are unaccompanied child, you have to stay in the municipality where you are accommodated until your asylum process is finalized. You can obtain a permission to travel to another municipality to work, to visit a doctor, to attend court hearing or school, or to attend the asylum interview.  The permission can be granted by the Asylum Home official.

If, on the basis of the Dublin Regulation, another European Union member state is responsible for dealing with your application, then you may be transferred to that country. If Slovenia is the first country where you applied for asylum, and entered the European Union, and you leave Slovenia for other European countries, those countries can return you back to Slovenia.

The States which are a party to the Dublin Regulation are: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.

You should receive the summary of the decision in the language you understand. If your application for asylum is rejected, you may appeal the decision before the Administrative Court. The application should be filed within 15 days after you receive a negative decision in a regular procedure or in 3 days if your application was carried out under the accelerated procedure.

The decision of the Administrative Court is final and can only be challenged with extraordinary legal remedies before the Supreme Court. In the procedures before the Administrative and Supreme Court, free legal assistance is provided by refugee counsellors (Slovenian language). You can access refugee counsellors in two ways; you can call the refugee counsellors from this list published online (in Slovenian language) or you can ask the Sector for international protection procedures to help you identify a refugee counsellor.