Interior Minister Kaliňák: Asylum seekers from Austria expected to arrive soon

The arrival of asylum seekers from Austria who should be staying temporarily in Slovakia during processing has, to date, been hampered by administrative obstacles, but these are now almost resolved and the first group of migrants may be expected soon, Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák said on Wednesday. "I'm not able to say the day or hour of their arrival, though. They'll come in the foreseeable future," said the minister. The administrative obstacles concerned the application of Austrian asylum law in Slovakia. "For instance, if there are children among the asylum seekers, they'll have German classes. This will need to be provided by an agency, which according to Austria needs to have some sort of permits, so the agency has had to obtain them," said the minister. Interior Minister Kaliňák and his Austrian counterpart Johanna Mikl-Leitner inked a memorandum on July 21, under the terms of which Slovakia will admit 500 Austrian migrants from Traiskirchen on a temporary basis, providing shelter to them in a facility in the southern Slovak town of Gabčíkovo.