First refugees as part of EU's scheme arrive in Slovenia

The 28 refugees who arrived today are from Syria and Iraq and have come to Slovenia from Greece.

They are asylum seekers who have requested for international protection already in Greece, which is why they are expected to be processed relatively quickly in Slovenia.

According to Head of the Interior Ministry's Directorate for Administrative Interior Affairs, Migration and Naturalization Nina Gregori, procedures should be concluded within a month.

Each applicant will be processed individually and not all of them will necessarily be granted refugee status, but the likelihood of that is rather small, Gregori said.

Initially, they will stay at the Ljubljana asylum centre, but once they get the refugee status, they will be transferred to integration houses in Ljubljana and Maribor, where they will stay for a maximum period of 15 months.

The first...