Pellegrini: Dysfunctional Registration System Makes Life Hard for Foreigners

Nitra/Bratislava, October 17 (TASR) - Dysfunctional registration system employed by the foreigners' police makes life difficult for the people and hinders their future, President Peter Pellegrini declared during his working visit to Nitra on Thursday. Pellegrini pointed out that Nitra has one of the highest shares of foreign inhabitants in percentage terms, whether it be foreigners who came to the city as job-seekers or Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war. "That figure I found quite surprising. About 15 percent of Nitra inhabitants today are foreigners. Nitra has a population of about 75,000, and 15,000 foreigners live here. These are people who are not illegal migrants, they came here properly in pursuit of work and they're welcome here," added the head of state. Additional problems are caused by Slovakia's visa policy towards India. "You'll find out all about it in this region. There's a large employer, Jaguar Land Rover car maker, owned by an Indian company and by Indians. They come here and their management needs to operate and work in this country. The visa policy, which has taken a turn for the worse lately, poses a great complication to their lives," he said. "Since we know we have problems with shortages of qualified labour force, we shouldn't make the situation more difficult for ourselves with complicated regulations or even the dysfunctional registration system, which greatly hinders the people who wish to come here in peace, work and help develop Slovakia," added the President. mf