The UNHCR said on Friday that the amended law, which the Slovene parliament recently adopted, diminished the standards which previously had been applied in the protection of asylum seeks and increased risks for their deportation to the country of origin where their freedoms were jeopardised or where they faced death threats.
The Slovene media quoted the spokesman for the UNHCR in Zurich, Ron Redmond, as saying that the UNHCR was disappointed at the voting in the Slovene parliament which adopted amendments to the Immigration and Asylum Act.
The Slovene parliament on Monday adopted the amended act with more stringent provisions regulating procedure for granting asylum.
Under the amended law, asylum seekers will no longer have free legal aid at an early stage of the process of applying for asylum. They will qualify for temporary employment one year after submitting an application for asylum.
In the parliament, 46 MPs voted for the amended law and 24 were against it.
The centre-left Opposition announced they would submit the new law to the Constitutional Court to assess whether some of its provisions were unconstitutional.