STA, 18 March 2019 - Police apprehended 102 foreigners who entered Slovenia from Croatia unlawfully at the weekend. Five of them have already asked for international protection, with the rest of them are still being processed. At the same time, two vehicles transporting illegal migrants were intercepted.
Metlika police apprehended 10 Afghani citizens and one Iranian crossing into Slovenia illegally in the night to Saturday in the south-east of the country.
The group was brought to the border by a 22-year-old Croatian driver from Velika Kladuša, one of the Bosnian towns closest to Slovenia.
The driver was handled by Croatian police.
Another group in the south-east was apprehended around the town of Semič on Saturday morning when a car with Italian licence places, driven by two Pakistani citizens, was stopped carrying three Indians, three Pakistani citizens and one citizen of Myanmar.
The drivers had tried to take the group to Italy, where the two reside legally. Slovenian police seized their car and filed a criminal complaint against them.
A total of 57 citizens, the majority from Pakistan (27) and Iran (12), were also caught by Novo Mesto police between Friday and Monday.
The Ljubljana Police Department apprehended twelve illegal migrants over the past 24 hours; three Algerians and a Tunisian citizen asked for asylum, while processing is still ongoing for the others.
The Koper Police Department, which covers south-western Slovenia, apprehended 15 illegal migrants from Friday to Monday morning.
One Afghani citizen asked for international protection, and the rest are being still processed.
Illegal migrations slowed down during the winter months, with 325 crossings registered in January and 334 in December compared to 1,000-plus in the summer months, according to police data.
In March last year, a total of 206 illegal crossings of the border were recorded, a figure that is likely to be exceeded this year.
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