Postimees Digest, Thursday, May 23

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Photo: Toomas Huik

Estonia looking to participate in interpreters' residence permits program.

Minister of Defense Urmas Reinsalu has proposed Estonian participation in the United Kingdom's program to give Afghan interpreters residence permits in Britain. British PM David Cameron decided yesterday that the country will be giving residence permits to 600 interpreters who have cooperated with the UK in Afghanistan.

Reinsalu could not yet say what Estonia's role in the program could be, but added that a proposal to participate has been made. The minister said that Estonia's participation in the program will bring no changes to the country's asylum policy and that individual cases will be subject to individual decisions also in the future. Estonia recently denied asylum to an interpreter who worked with Estonian forces in Afghanistan.

Emigration doubled in 2012.

While Estonia's migration balance has been in deficit for years, as is the case with most of its neighbors, last year delivered a sharp downward spike as no fewer than 10,873 people left the country, nearly double that of the previous year. People who came to Estonia numbered 4,244 in 2012.

Experts are baffled and cannot say what caused the sudden drop while it is speculated that optimism delivered by the economic boom six years ago has simply run out as people gradually come to realize life will not improve notably in the near future. Other perceived factors include low salaries and dissatisfaction with rulers and policies.

Riigikogu introduces nursing hospitals.

The parliament passed a bill to amend the Health Care Services Organization Act yesterday to reform the system of care providers by creating nursing hospitals. The latter will in the future be in charge of outpatient and inpatient nursing services and get the right to offer home nursing services that until recently belonged exclusively with special hospices. The law forces current service providers to comply with the new requirements and its entry into force has therefore been postponed until January 1 next year.

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