Estonia, EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Real Estate, Society

"The Ministry of Social Affairs is in constant contact with the local government and notified the City of Tallinn of the refugees' arrival before they arrived here. Tallinn also notified us about their contact person. Notifying a city borough government is a matter of internal communication in the city," spokesperson for the ministry Karin Volmer told BNS on Friday.

Six of the seven refugees who were settled in Estonia under the European Union's migrant relocation program were housed in Tallinn's Lasnamae borough, governor of the borough Maria Jufereva said. "It has appeared that they already settled six people – one man and a five-member family – in Lasnamae borough basically without coordinating with the Lasnamae borough or Tallinn leaders," governor of the borough Maria Jufereva said on Thursday evening on the newscast of the Russian-language channel ETV+ of the public broadcaster.

Jufereva said that she does not know why Lasnamae was chosen as their place of residence since she was not consulted beforehand and a real estate company was used to find an apartment for them.

Volmer again stressed the state's wish to spare the refugees of unwanted attention. "It is important to protect the privacy of war refugees so that people who have come from very difficult circumstances would adapt to their new life," she added.

The first seven refugees settled in Estonia under the European Union's migrant relocation program arrived in Estonia on Mar. 29. The Interior Ministry has said the refugees arriving in Estonia were housed in Tallinn and in Tartu. All the seven individuals have been granted the status of supplementary protection, which entails a one-year residence permit with the possibility of extension.