Interior Ministry: We're Dealing with Aliens Police's Booking System

Bratislava, March 14 (TASR) - The Interior Ministry has once again declared that it's addressing the issue of the booking system of the Aliens Police, spokesman for the ministry Matej Neumann said in response to an appeal by the opposition Progressive Slovakia (PS) party, adding that the system has undergone modifications to prevent the misuse of metadata by "speculators". According to him, the police are also dealing with the buying and selling of appointments. "The Interior Ministry is trying to address the situation in the residency agenda in a systemic way. For example, the amendment to the Residence of Aliens Act, effective as of December 2024, introduced the possibility of using electronic services for submitting applications to deal with selected life situations faced by aliens and to communicate with the Aliens Police, while in the future it is planned to expand the scope of these situations, including by making the e-services more user-friendly," he stated, pointing out that the number of foreigners in Slovakia has increased several times over since Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The Slovak Towns Union drew attention to an unsatisfactory situation at the Aliens Police in October of last year. There aren't enough appointments in the police's booking system and time slots have been bought and sold. The Interior Ministry claims it gradually adopts measures to stabilise the situation. PS called on Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) to communicate about the issue, stressing that appointments are still being traded. am/df