Renata Brunskole, Secretary General of the Slovenian Red Cross (RKS), explained that 13,000 volunteers of RKS and 91 first aid teams are ready and can be activated at any team.
They are waiting to be summoned from the Administration of the Republic of Slovenia for civil protection and disaster relief (URSZR), which may be activated by police once they have received the migrants and run the process of identification.
Some teams had been activated on Thursday evening to distribute water to migrants at Dobova; the latter refused the water at first but gratefully took it a while later, said Brunskole. 20,000 euros have been used from the solidarity fund to purchase bare necessities, food and sanitary material; tents, blankets, beds and the like are ready, too.
Modern refugees are no longer ragged and dirty
The director of Slovenian Philanthropy Tereza Novak added that refugees certainly need help, even if their response does not always match our expectations. “Modern refugees are no longer ragged or dirty, but they’re still people who need our help,” argued Novak to refute some scruples in the public that questioned if such groups of people really need help. Slovenian Philanthropy runs a database of volunteers which is getting bigger and bigger by the day. According to Novak, there are currently about 2,500 volunteers who have already worked with asylum seekers, migrants and similar groups of people, and who have already gone through various forms of training.
In cooperation with the government’s coordination group, meetings and preparation regarding locations for temporary placement of migrants have already taken place; Brunskole mentioned the areas of Lendava, Gornja Radgona, Podlehnik, Brežice and Bela Krajina. “In cooperation with URSZS, preparations have already been made, so that RKS’s placement units in the cities of Maribor, Nova Gorica, Ljubljana and Novo mesto are all prepared,” noted Brunskole.
10,000 volunteers of Slovenian Caritas are ready, too. In the past few days, Caritas prepared 5,000 packets which are now being distributed. On a special transaction account, Caritas has gathered over 21,000 euros, and these funds have already been activated. The organisation also has about five people who can speak Arabic and has volunteered to help mark food. They have also compiled a hands-on dictionary to help other volunteers overcome language barriers.
Civil protection setting up tents
Members of the Civil Protection (CZ) are in charge of preparing additional capacities. So far several camps with tents have been set up in border areas. They also delivered additional beds to the immigration centre in Postojna, explains CZ’s commander Srečko Šestan. Additionally, they brought in extra equipment in the immediate vicinity of the Brežice Police Station where migrants are brought for registration. A slightly larger supply of equipment has been set up at Gruškovje, and the delivery for Lendava is all set, too.
S. Ja., MMC; translated by K. Z.
