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Amendment to Slovenia's aliens act to heed warnings from Council of Europe

Xinhua, January 18, 2017 Adjust font size:

The Slovenian ruling coalition has indicated it will heed warnings from the Council of Europe over the controversial changes to the aliens act and amend the government-sponsored motion accordingly, the Slovenian Press Agency(STA) has reported.

The Council of Europe has expressed concerns in letters to Slovenia's prime minister and parliament speaker that the bill raised a number of issues under the European Convention on Human Rights.

There have also been concerns in Slovenia that the bill, which would allow police in special circumstances to turn down and send back illegal migrants who do not qualify for asylum, would contravene the country's constitution.

In response, the Slovenian government announced on Tuesday to find a solution compliant both with the Constitution and European conventions by Friday when the bill is debated by the relevant parliamentary committee.

According to the latest STA report, Secretary General of the Council of Europe(CoE) Thorbjorn Jagland has expressed the organisation's readiness to send its experts to Ljubljana immediately to help Slovenia improve on its amendments to the aliens act.

Talking to reporters in Strasbourg on Tuesday, Jagland said he appreciated that the Slovenian prime minister had seriously accepted the CoE's initiative in the efforts to improve the law.

The National Assembly in Slovenia is expected to vote on the bill at a session starting next Monday. Endit