The Estonian Human Rights Centre (EHRC) issued an opinion to the Ministry of the Interior on the draft new Act on Granting International Protection to Aliens, warning that it risks endangering the fundamental rights of asylum applicants. The EHRC emphasized that the draft is overly complex, making it difficult for applicants to understand their rights. It also noted that the availability of free legal aid is unclear and appears to conflict with the current State Legal Aid Act. Additional concerns include the proposed extension of detention without court authorization, restrictions limiting applicants’ freedom of movement to a single county, treating administrative acts as delivered by email without acknowledgment of receipt, the absence of alternatives to detention for vulnerable applicants, and a vaguely defined financial security requirement that could lead to arbitrariness.
The full opinion is available here (in Estonian).