Missing Iraqi refugee girls return to Slovenia from Austria

Source: Xinhua| 2017-06-09 20:52:49|Editor: xuxin
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LJUBLJANA, June 9 (Xinhua) -- Two Iraqi refugee girls who went missing on Monday in Ljubljana, the capital of Slovenia, have been found safe with their mother in Salzburg, an Austrian city on the border of Germany.

All three, the mother and the two girls, have returned to Slovenia on Friday morning, the Slovenian Press Agency (STA) reported, quoting Ljubljana Police Administration.

The girls, aged nine and eleven, arrived in Slovenia last year with their mother without documents, and were first accommodated at the Asylum Centre in Ljubljana.

The social services later established that the mother was unable to take care of them because of an illness, and the girls were given into custody of a legal guardian last September.

The girls, who have filed applications for international protection in Slovenia, were reported missing by the legal guardian when they did not return from the school they attended in Ljubljana.

The case made the news on Wednesday over fear it was related to human trafficking, while the legal guardian suspected that the girls were on their way to Germany, where they are said to have relatives.

Slovenia has so far accepted 186 refugees under the EU's relocation and resettlement scheme to distribute refugees arriving in Greece and Italy throughout the EU.

By the end of this year, the total number of refugees in Slovenia is expected to reach 567, a quota set by EU scheme, according to STA.

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