Indicator history

In Slovenia large numbers of migrant workers have been accommodated in dormitories owned by the companies who employed them. Migrants had to pay these companies a rent for the apartment, and they were obliged to stay in these dormitories. The payments of rents were deducted from their salaries. The hygienic and living conditions in these dormitories were at times appalling. The situation reached a peak in 2009 and 2010 when due to the economic crisis that affected the construction sector causing many migrants to lose their job making them unable to pay for housing. Only in 2011 when a new Employment and Work of Aliens was adopted it included a provision obliging the employers who also offer accommodation for migrant workers to respect minimum standards of the premises. Since the number of migrant workers decreased significantly due to the crisis in the construction sector, these dormitories are now almost empty. 

According to the Amnesty International Report, most of the Roma population in Slovenia lives in segregated settlements (slums) in rural areas, in living conditions that are far below minimum standards. Problems pertaining these settlements are insecurity of tenure and problems with accessing basic infrastructure such as water, sanitation and transport facilities. In most municipalities Roma families face barriers in accessing non-profit rented housing, which include lack of information, biased attitudes and discriminatory criteria for allocation. Consequently, many of them they are forced to continue to live in conditions which are below any minimum standards.

Source:

MOZETIČ, Polona. Worker's dormitories : from private property to public forum and back again. In: KIRN, Gal (ur.), KRALJ, Gašper (ur.), PIŠKUR, Bojana (ur.). New public spaces : dissensual political and artistic practices in the post-Yugoslav context. Maastricht: Jan van Eyck Academie: Moderna galerija, 2009, str. 49-62.   

Parallel lives. Roma denied rights to housing and Water in Slovenia, report, Amnesty International, 2011, available at http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR68/005/2011.
 

In Slovenia large numbers of migrant workers have been accommodated in dormitories owned by the companies who employed them. Migrants had to pay these companies a rent for the apartment, and they were obliged to stay in these dormitories. The payments of rents were deducted from their salaries. The hygienic and living conditions in these dormitories were at times appalling. The situation reached a peak in 2009 and 2010 when due to the economic crisis that affected the construction sector causing many migrants to lose their job making them unable to pay for housing. Only in 2011 when a new Employment and Work of Aliens was adopted it included a provision obliging the employers who also offer accommodation for migrant workers to respect minimum standards of the premises. Since the number of migrant workers decreased significantly due to the crisis in the construction sector, these dormitories are now almost empty.

In 2011 a study on occupational health of migrant workers was carried out. It included 92 migrant workers, mainly from Bosnia and Herzegovina accommodated in one of the largest dormitories in Ljubljana. In regard to accommodation, one-fifth of the respondents assessed it as very poor, while almost half of the respondents stated that the living conditions tended to be average, except for the lack of laundry options because they did not have a washing machine.

In 2012, the Slovenian Human Rights Ombudsman produced a special report on living conditions of the Roma residing in south-eastern parts of the country. The report was based on the Roma-related cases observed by the Ombudsman. The Ombudsman found that:

• the residents of one of the Roma settlements were deprived of access to safe drinking water;
• in case of another settlement the relevant local authorities failed to initiate procedure for determination of house number in another settlement, and, as a result, the residents were prevented from enjoying fundamental rights such as the right to social security and healthcare, the right to vote as well as the right to education;
• another municipality failed to provide for the inclusion of Roma settlements in the relevant spatial plans, and missed the opportunity to take part in a public call aimed at purchasing plots of land from non-Roma owners.

According to the Ombudsman, several municipalities, which are, by the relevant laws, primarily responsible for the regulation of and public infrastructure in the Roma settlements, tend to be inefficient in solving the situation in these settlements. With regard to the regulation of the Roma settlements, the Ombudsman noted attempts of municipalities to transfer the responsibility for the regulation of the Roma settlements to the state authorities and vice versa. They also established that insufficient funds had been allocated from the state budget for improving the housing situation of the Roma, and further noted that certain municipalities, including for political reasons, refrained from applying for state funds, as this is often linked to the adoption of spatial plans implying regularisation of the Roma settlements. By late 2011, the majority of municipalities, with the Roma population, in south-eastern parts of the country failed to adopt the relevant spatial plans. The reasons for municipalities’ failure to address the issue of the regularisation of Roma settlements include certain resistance on the part of the majority population as well as the complexity of regularisation procedures. In regard to the latter, municipalities often lack qualified staff.

Generally, the Ombudsman established that the conditions in the Roma settlements and their neighbourhoods are serious, and that the responsibility for the regularisation should directly be assumed by the state authorities.

Source:

• Draksler, K. (2011) ´The Health of migrant workers in Slovenia: Results of a pilot study` in: Bonmati Tomas, A., Contu, P., Fosse, E., Hofmeister, A., Kennedy, L., Koelen, M., Lindstrom, B., Pavleković, G., Pluemer, K.D.,  Pocetta, G., Stanistreet, D., Vaandrager, L. (eds.), European dimension of health promotion: Twenty years of capacity building: Evolution of Salutogenic Training: The ETC ‘Healthy Learning’ Process, Zagreb, European Training Consortium in Public Health and Health Promotion (ETC-PHHP) and Andrija Štampar School of Public Health, School of Medicine, University of Zagreb, p. 97.
• Slovenia, Human Rights Ombudsman (Varuh človekovih pravic) (2012) Posebno poročilo o bivanjskih razmerah Romov na področju jugovzhodne Slovenije, Ljubljana, Varuh človekovih pravic, available at: www.varuh-rs.si/fileadmin/user_upload/pdf/posebna_porocila/POSEBNO_POROCILO_ROMI_-_maj_2012_-_za_splet.pdf.