The public broadcaster RTVS has pointed to the problems of foreign employees at immigration or so-called alien police departments right across Slovakia. Following the TV report, several employers have reacted.
The Slovak software company Eset employs a significant number of employees from abroad. All of them complain of the long queues and the high number of hours they have to spend regularly at alien police departments. It is not possible to book an appointment ahead of time, nobody speaks English and many signs are only in Slovak. Police claim that they are obliged to communicate in the official state language, i.e. in Slovak.
The chaos at the alien police department has recently been misused by a group of Ukrainian workers, who started to prepare a waitlist outside the doors of a police station in the early morning hours. According to information from RTVS, the first ten names can illegally buy their advantageous position at the head of the queue. The problem with a lack of communication in English results in delays in procedures and thus people have to queue up as soon as of 5 am to be among the first ones to be administered.
"We had a top manager that was scared to go there, despite having worked in Slovakia for several years already," said the owner of an agency that provides the aid to foreign companies in Bratislava. As she added, the manager as well as other foreigners which her company helps, fear the conflict situations between people and the policemen due to long queues in front of the alien police department in the suburb of Petržalka, Bratislava.
The speaker of the outgoing Ombudswoman office Ján Glovičko says that they conducted research on the situation at these alien police offices in Slovakia. The 2014-2015 report showed that as many as a third of all foreigners spent more than 8 hours waiting at an alien police department.
Interior Minister Robert Kaliňák admits that the administrative times at these departments are long. "Following the increase of foreign investors in Slovakia, we want to provide them with better comfort so to make them feel really welcome," said Interior Minister for RTVS. As he promised, the immigration police station in the Slovak capital would be moved to a larger premises. Nevertheless, he did not speak about the increase in the number of police staff, nor about any improvement in communication in English.
