Ljubljana opens transit centre for foreigners

Ljubljana, 29 October - A transit centre for foreigners has recently been set up in former Viator hotel, Ljubljana. The spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior, Božo Truden, said in this connection that the Centre is not earmarked for Croatian refugees or economic immigrants, but exclusively for those foreign subjects who apply to the Ministry of the Interior for the status of refugees. The Ministry will send the applications to the U.N. International Commissariat in Geneva, so that all those with the internationally granted status of refugees will have all the rights enjoyed by the citizens of Slovenia, as well as Slovenian passports. Although Slovenia has not yet been internationally recognized as a state, the Centre has been fitted out according to international criteria and requirements. The transit centre will in entirety be financed from the budget of the Republic of Slovenia. So far no applications for refugee status have been received at the Ministry, and the Centre is still vacant, the spokesman said.