The situation with asylum seekers in Slovakia is stabilised, Interior Minister Denisa Saková informed her counterparts from other EU member states last week.
The Slovak authorities have received 93 asylum requests and have granted asylum to two people so far this year, she said as reported by the SITA newswire.
Saková said in Luxembourg that she considers the proper functioning of returns to be one of the most efficient factors discouraging migrants from illegally entering Europe. She added that this requires cooperation with third countries (non-EU member states).
"Here, the insufficiencies are perhaps the most evident," Saková said as quoted by SITA. "We have got the means to motivate third countries to improve their cooperation."
The EU is considering the introduction of penalties on third countries in the event that they fail to cooperate with the EU on the returns of their citizens. The sanctions could, for instance, affect the visa policy of the EU towards such countries, SITA wrote.
In 2018 the number of asylum requests in the EU dropped by about 10 percent in a year-on-year comparison, the Interior Ministry stated in its annual report on migration policy, submitted to the cabinet session in May.
