STA, 7 October 2021 - The police caught 7,031 illegal migrants in the first nine months of this year, down by some 41% compared to the same period in 2020. The bulk of them, almost 6,200, came from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
The police said there was an upward trend in illegal migration, but the uptick was smaller than expected.
As is usually the case, most illegal crossings of the border have been detected by the Koper Police Department (3,421). The number of such incidents decreased or roughly stayed level across Slovenia, except for the area patrolled by the Maribor Police Department, mainly due to those seeking to avoid Covid border control measures or traffic at border crossings.
The total of illegal migrants who requested international protection rose in the past month, particularly among Afghan citizens, but it was down for the entire nine-month period, from 2,775 to 2,449.
