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Slovenia Toughens Law to Prevent Another Influx of Migrants

by Reuters

   LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA --

   Slovenia's government approved amendments to its law on foreigners
   Thursday to enable police to seal the country's borders to illegal
   migrants for a limited period if needed.

   The changes, expected to be ratified by parliament, are meant to
   prevent a repeat of a six-month-long flood of migrants across Slovenia
   that ended in March 2016, when several countries to its south closed
   the main Balkan migration route.

   Around 500,000 illegal migrants crossed Slovenia, the smallest country
   along the migration corridor, on their way to desired destinations in
   wealthier west European countries.

   Interior Minister Vesna Gyorkos Znidar said Slovenia would not be able
   to endure another migrant flow of that kind, especially as its northern
   neighbor Austria and other west European states were closing their
   doors to migrants.

   "The new legislation will be used only if migration would be
   endangering the public order and internal security of Slovenia," Znidar
   told a news conference.

   She said the government also decided to establish a special Office for
   Migration to coordinate policy on migrants.

   Amnesty International, in a statement, urged parliament to reject the
   legal changes as they "would deny refugees and asylum seekers the
   protections to which they are entitled under international and EU law."

   Znidar said the number of asylum requests in Slovenia had risen
   fivefold in the past year. In the first 11 months of 2016 Slovenia
   received 1,170 requests, of which 148 were approved, while about 230
   requests were still being processed.