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Description
The project aims to eliminate the problems caused by the lack of infrastructure in these procedures and also to help citizens of other countries who have already acquired their residence status, but don’t manage to orient themselves in the Slovenian social welfare, employment and health care system. The project also aims to further strengthen advocacy for respecting the fundamental rights of people who haven’t acquired residence status yet, so that they can speak for themselves about the problems and the systemic obstacles they face while trying to acquire their residence status.
We will carry out advocacy activities in the field of migration by setting up a permanent info-office, organizing working meetings, regular assemblies and public events. We have set up a counseling office with regular office hours, where we will provide information on asylum procedures, provide assistance in arranging residence legalization procedures, distribute donations, provide legal advice and work together to find ways of resolving difficult situations.
By implementing direct forms of assistance, we can monitor the procedures of state bodies and monitor the implementation of official procedures determined by laws or regulations. Assistance in acute distress also enables the person that was helped to take part in advocacy in the form of collective action and drawing attention to systemic violations and shortcomings once they have solved their individual problem.
We will draw attention to the consequences of harmful changes in the International Protection Act and the Aliens Act, and we will also try to eliminate them. We will do this by preparing and publishing a report on the state of protection of fundamental rights of migrants in Slovenia, organizing assemblies at which migrants will take the leading advocacy role, and organizing two press conferences: on violations in official border procedures and/or the conditions in the care of asylum seekers in state institutions.
Summary of project results
The project addressed the lack of infrastructure to assist individuals in Slovenia facing challenges in obtaining legal residence status, difficult asylum procedures, or those who, as citizens of other countries, have newly settled their residence status but find themselves unfamiliar with the social, employment, and health care systems. Through the project, we strengthened advocacy activities in the area of respecting fundamental rights of people who do not have settled residence status by opening a space where those facing systemic barriers in arranging their residence spoke about their issues and publicly addressed them and demanded solutions.
With the regular operation of the information office, we helped our users improve their living conditions. In Slovenia, primary integration is often insufficient for many people with migrant backgrounds, leading to long-term unemployment and an inability to integrate properly into society.
Important achievements of our work included successfully intervening in finding housing in several cases, particularly for families with a larger number of individuals facing more difficulties in finding housing options on the rental market. In several cases, we successfully intervened in finding jobs, thereby facilitating easier integration into the labor market and access to independent income. We carried out this work with active participation from the users, who independently searched for housing, while we assisted during the apartment viewings or in establishing initial contact with landlords. We believe that by doing so, we actively contributed to empowering individuals to tackle their problems independently, which is a significant achievement. In terms of advocacy, an important achievement was our involvement in the work of the consultative body of NGOs with the Ministry of the Interior. This inclusion followed a public statement and a press conference during Tatjana Bobnar''s candidacy. At that time, some of our members with a migrant background had the opportunity to meet with Prime Minister Robert Golob, where they independently shared their experiences of police violence on the Balkan route and violence at the border. Participation in the consultative body was encouraging and demonstrated the potential for significant progress in implementing legislation that would follow the principles of dignified integration into society. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, the Minister resigned, and the meetings of the consultative body were concluded. With the appointment of a new Minister, Boštjan Poklukar, in March, we were invited again; however, it appears that these meetings promise less willingness for collaboration from the Ministry of the Interior with civil society.