A ministry and its lone half-time crisis manager

Photo: Sander Ilvest

Addressing the social ministry regarding refugees, journalists have but one person to address. That'll be Triin Raag, a local governments specialist at social department. In this situation of crisis, one lady is loaded with arrangement of housing and support. What's more, she's officially employed just half-time. Come New Year, Estonia will be receiving some 200 «batch one» refugees. To this, add 373 latest Juncker-quota people.

-How come you are at this bulky task alone, and with other work to do?

In the public sector, people aren’t relocated as easy as in private sector. According to plans, the cuts will be the toughest in social ministry’s domain – over 200 is planned to be laid off.    

-Have you asked for extra staff?

In high likelihood, the refugees-related domain will soon be my main responsibility.

-Will there be a separate department for refugees’ problems?

Definitely not.

-But will you at least get yourself a team?

Eh… Can’t comment, that’s for the leadership to decide.

-But you can comment if you need a team, can’t you?

I’d need some extra capacity, at some point the load will be very tough.

-The refugees are soon here, are we on schedule with preparations?

We are on schedule if the initial people might arrive during the first months of next year. We know the people will not come all together – to be received in stages.

-No procurements proclaimed yet.

The procurement will be proclaimed in October, by start of the year we’ll be in contract. We will find a partner who will arrange rentals of housing, and if need be the interiors and repairs of apartments. As well as counselling local governments. As well as people’s access to interpretation and language. Presumably we will have one partner but it is for them to arrange if they do everything or will find further partners.

-You say you are on schedule but is it rather not racing with time and putting out fires? Is there something that could have been done earlier? Europe has been in refugee crisis for more than a year. One gets the impression that Estonia just recently discovered it.

I’ve been working in the ministry on this field since 1997. For years, we have been providing housing, interpretation services, placement in local governments for asylum seekers. True, on a significantly smaller scale.

We had the first training for local governments at the end of 1990ies. We told them what the challenges may be regarding refugees. We have had trainings in 2012, 2013 and 2015 in cooperation with international migration organisations.

The last one, in April, was before the statement by European Commission. True: participation by local governments was low. The speakers outnumbered the listeners. 

-Wasn’t there anything more Estonia could have done to prepare for the crisis now in Europe?

The finance ministry attempted to forecast in which month there’d be the largest numbers of asylum seekers. They admitted it was an impossible task. The statistics show that two years ago there was actually a big drop in the numbers that reached Europe.

In the context of transplantation, yes – the direction in European Commission for several years has been towards distributing refugees into member states under compulsion or semi-voluntarily.

Several times, the Estonian government has formed its opinion regarding this – for a long time we were convinced we would not participate in these programmes. Rather, Estonia has maintained a very conservative and low-key asylum policy.

-We do not have a political decision yet to receive 373 people near term, but the figure is sure to swell in time. Can you take that into consideration already, in your work?

We do, and we should change our tactics. While with the up-to-200 we know they will come gradually and will immediately be settled in apartments all across Estonia, the other 373 are a new reality. Probably, accommodation centres will have to be opened for them, for temporary placement.

Obviously, there will be another accommodation centre in addition to Vao. While seeking a place for that, we can already consider the possibility that in 1.5 years we will need another one, and then another one.

-They need a place for the buffer time till the documents get fixed?

On the one hand, this is needed for the papers. On the other hand, however, it is a good time to familiarise themselves with the Estonian society. The people in Vao know what country they are in. For them, the Estonian language comes as no surprise. They have knowledge on the working culture, attitudes, and values. I don’t think the time at the centre is bad, necessarily.

-To house over 300 people, we need four Vao centres...

They will not all come together. They will come when the state is ready. We will have advance notice that they are coming, but the time cannot be very long. There has never been transplantation before, in Europe. Lots of things will take shape as we go.

-There will be ever increasing numbers of asylum seekers coming into Estonia. Must we have a plan to assess how many accommodation centres we will need, and when?

Such centres are need-based. If the numbers of seekers increase, new centres will be opened as we go. Motels will be used, hostels, dormitories... If no seekers are coming, then these will be closed. There will be no centres built and maintained while empty.

-Would our entrepreneurs be willing to house refugees in their hotels?

We have had owners of accommodation institutions approach us saying their owners include people who have establishments in other countries as well, and that over there motels are available for refugees. They have asked f we’d want to do that.

-How will we manage hundreds of refugees when a while ago we had a problem at Vao that the people there who were granter residence permit had no place to go from there?

AS Hoolekandeteenused (the welfare provider – edit) has four months to find a new home for those granted residence permits. Firstly, after receiving the residence permit a person must wait for one more month to get his documents in order. When seeking the new home, it will be considered if they have a job, if the children will be able to go to school, and personal desires of the person. Over four months, they do find a home.

In spring, when the initial numbers arrived and the society got upset, a problem emerged. It had already been agreed they’d go sign the contract, but the real estate broker called and said it’s cancelled. The owner was unwilling to rent to refugees.

-Some simple questions from readers. Will health insurance extend to refugees?

Whoever obtains international protection is as any other individual dwelling in Estonia. On top of that, the active supporting period lasts for the first two years – regarding a home, studies of the Estonian language, and interpretation services.

Sickness insurance is on the same basis. If the person is working, if he/she is registered in unemployment insurance fund (the Töötukassa), or a student, pregnant, caring for a child under 3 etc, then the person has sickness insurance. If not working, not studying, not registered at Töötukassa, he gets emergency care.

-How about compulsory school attendance – with a teenager from Syria, we can’t promptly put him in 7th grade...  

For the schools where the children will go, education ministry will offer various measures – extra language studies, support for the teachers, the capitation fee is bigger as well. 

That’s the way it is even now: during the time the parents are applying for asylum, the children are attending school. So as the child comes to Estonia, the practice is for them to go to school immediately. Of course, at schools they let the children acclimatise – they sit in the class but do not immediately participate in the studies. Then, they will develop the language skills. It does depend on the child, but as a rule children learn a lot faster anyway.

-But if a pensioner arrives, what will she live on?

The pensions are extended on same basis. The right for national pension is awarded after living in Estonia for five years. She will have to live on subsistence benefits. As a rule, pensioners do not come here alone.

-When refugees have a baby born, will it get citizenship?

Estonia does not grant citizenship by birth. It will be according to citizenship of the parents. The baby will get residence permit.

-By which document does a refugee travel?

He gets a residence permit card and the grey passport. Depending on the country he wants to travel to, he needs to apply for a visa.

-Is Estonian state also ready for a mass of people cross the border at one sweep?

For that, we have emergency plans and cooperation between various agencies. For sure, that will be a very difficult situation. Various housing measures will be employed. Currently, we have Red Cross as a partner which may act as personnel for a tile in accommodation establishments. This cannot be planned for comprehensively, but some kind of preparation is possible.

Examples – what sums may the families initially have (as also apply to other inhabitants of Estonia) 

Lone single unemployed adult

Not working, the person has no income. He can apply for subsistence benefit from local government. For a person living alone, subsistence level is €130 a month. Thus, he will be paid benefits to ensure the €130 level – monthly.

Single parent with child, parent not working

As the parent is not working, the family’s income is the child allowance of €50. Determining subsistence benefit, the child allowance is fully included in income.

For such families, subsistence level is €260 (€130 for both) and subsistence benefit will be paid to fill the gap. For a family with one parent, additional social benefit of €15 is paid. On top of that, the family is entitled to needs-based family allowance of €45 a month.

Thus the family’s total income will be €320 – €160 per family member.

Two children and two parents, parents not working

The subsistence level will be €494 (€130 for first family member, €104 for the other parent, and €130 for both children). €90 of need-based family allowance is available.  

The family will total €584 a month (€146 per member).  

Two children and two parents; elder child is 10 and the younger 11 months old. Parents not working

The family will have €100 total as child allowances, and parental benefit of €390 for the younger child.

The subsistence level will be €494, need based €90 of family allowance is available. The family will total €584 a month.

NB! As socially substantiated and pursuant to limits set by local governments, residence allowance shall be added to subsistence benefits.  

Source: social ministry