On 16 February Slovakia's Minister of the Interior, Matúš Šutaj Eštok, met with Danijela Popović-Efendić, regional director of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), to sign a memorandum of understanding between the Ministry of the Interior and UNHCR.

The full memorandum text has not been made public, but information available on its contents emphasises the plan for cooperation between the state and UNHCR on the care of refugees, asylum seekers and temporary protection holders in asylum facilities. In practice, inclusion of UNHCR expertise could lead to improvements in service quality. Changes are also planned in crisis management, which could affect the handling of new refugee arrivals.

According to UNHCR data, 115 875 refugees from Ukraine have applied for international protection in Slovakia as of 4 February 2024. Statistical data from the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic on persons granted temporary protection reveal that these are primarily women and children: temporary asylum has been granted to 37 461 children under 18 years old (32%) and to 38 365 women over 18 years old (74%).

Cooperation with international organisations is of pivotal importance in the provision of complex and comprehensive support to the displaced population: Slovakia continues to actively cooperate with a wide range of international organisations, non-governmental organisations.

UNHCR also offers expert and technical data processing assistance, for example through provision of information from its databases on people displaced from Ukraine. Additionally, discussions are underway on the possibility of revisiting proposals for an intergovernmental agreement with UNHCR and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) on the humanitarian transfer of refugees through the Slovak Republic.