H.E. Mr. Igor Pokojný:

I thank the Deputy for her kind words and for understanding our mutual positions. Regarding human trafficking, frankly, I am not able say much now because I do not have information from on the ground. Therefore, I am unable to comment on this topic. I am sorry, but I do not wish to just make up something to tell the Deputy. I do know that security is important to us and that we have experience with human trafficking. As I mentioned, I worked as a consul in the UK, and we had many cases of human trafficking there at that time. Therefore, I understand the problem and I know what the Deputy is talking about, but I am unable to say how the situation stands in respect to refugees now. However, precautions are being taken because we are well aware of this issue and we have previous experience of it.

I turn now to the topic of employing teachers and what the Slovakian Ministry of Education is trying to do in this regard. The Slovakian and Ukrainian languages are not the same; they are different. It sounds like they are practically similar, but they are really different. In the eastern part of Slovakia, however, people speak a language similar to Ukrainian. Therefore, even before the war, we had some Ukrainian cultural institutions, such as Ukrainian theatre.

We had it before in Slovakia, especially in the eastern part. This is nothing new for us. The minister of education is working hard to have a mechanism as soon as possible. You have to find these teachers because when such a huge influx of people enters a country and you are registering them, the first questions are "Are you well?" and "Do you need any help?" The emotional situation of these people is very bad. They just fled their own country. They left everything behind. It takes several days for them to realise where they are and to look at how they can help their countrymen.

We experience lack of medical staff. As yet, we are just starting to experience it but it will be a problem for us. That is why it was discussed at EU level during the recent meeting of ministers of health. They discussed what to do and how to do it. People will have to be transported to other countries for medical services or surgery. This is being discussed now. We have and will have this problem. Not only us, but all front-line countries will come across this problem.