State spends €2.7 million in 2016 to receive and accommodate refugees
According to data of the Ministry of Finance, the Estonian state spent €2.7 million in 2016 on receiving and accommodating refugees. Some 17 percent of the funds came from the European Union.
The expenses mainly concerned the people taken in from Greece and Turkey. Money was spent on background checks, interviewing candidates, the placement program for those eventually taken in, and on support, translation, and Estonian language courses, paper Õhtuleht wrote on Tuesday.
The €2.5 million allocated to these purposes was divided among the Ministry of the Interior, the Internal Security Service, and the Police and Border Guard (PPA).
The Ministry of Social Affairs’ expenses, including reported workforce expenses concerning refugees in the amount of €82,585, were covered with the one-off support paid to member states by the European Union.
The Ministry of Education and Research, which is taking care of refugees’ education, language instruction, and integration, reported expenses of €152,800, covered out of the state budget.
Of the Ministry of Finance’s reserve for migration-related expenses, the Ministry of Justice will receive €33,000, the Ministry of Social Affairs €123,205, and the Ministry of the Interior €1.778 million.
Estonia has agreed to take in 550 refugees under the union’s migrant distribution plan beyond asylum seekers and applicants for international protection here in Estonia.
Editor: Dario Cavegn
