STA, 30 August 2020 - Slovenia registered 31 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, a figure which marks a decline over the previous two days but is still fairly high for a weekend day. A total of 738 tests were conducted.

Just over 4% of all tests were positive, which is significantly higher than earlier in the week but still broadly in line with the trend since mid-August, according to data from the coronavirus tracker covid-19.sledilnik.org.

National Public Health Institute Recommends Masks for All Primary School Children

There are now estimated to be some 450 active cases in the country, with 24 people in hospital with Covid-19, one more than in Friday, and two in intensive care, the same as the day before.

New cases were recorded in 16 municipalities yesterday. The highest numbers were confirmed in Ljubljana (8) and Tržič (3), with two each in Šentjur, Kranj, Rogaška Slatina and Slovenske Konjice.

Serbia moved to yellow list, Croatia remains red-listed

STA, 30 August 2020 - Serbia is no longer on the red list of high-risk countries as of Sunday and has been moved to the yellow list, having more than 40 infected persons infected with coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants. Croatia remains on the red list, so quarantine is still required for most travellers returning from the country.

There is a quarantine requirement for travellers from countries on the yellow list as well, but there are many exemptions.

There are no changes on the green list of 19 countries seen as being less dangerous. Almost all are in Europe.

The government made the decision on Saturday after assessing the epidemiological situation in the EU countries, Schengen zone, the Balkans and Italian regions, and the criteria for classification of countries based on the epidemiological situation of the National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ).

The cabinet also reviewed the Covid-19-related procedures at the border, and check points inside the country, and decided that the current regime will remain in place.

The latest statistics on coronavirus and Slovenia, and the latest police news on red, green and yellow list countries. All our stories on coronavirus and Slovenia. Can I transit Slovenia? Find out from the police...

The covers and editorials from leading weeklies of the Left and Right for the work-week ending Friday, 28 August 2020. All our stories about coronavirus and Slovenia are here

Mladina: Beović spreading hysteria while not controlling infections

STA, 28 August 2020 - The latest commentary in the left-leaning weekly Mladina comes as a letter by the editor-in-chief written to Bojana Beović, the head of the Health Ministry's Covid-19 task force, in which she is being criticised for spreading hysteria in Slovenia over potential infections while practically doing nothing to control infections.

In Letter to Prof. Bojana Beović, Grega Repovž says that while a majority of expert guidelines so far have been logical and well explained, "this of course could not be said for the government's policy, which you also belong to and support with your statements."

"The government policy is based on scaremongering, exaggeration and misleading, because of which most of the people do not trust you enough, which public opinion polls show. This is bad, because the autumn is coming."

Repovž says that citizens deserve respect from representatives of the authorities, and that Beović has acted the opposite in recent weeks, especially when it comes to the return of Slovenian holiday-goers from Croatia.

"You deliberately mislead people, and exerted psychological violence on them with fearmongering and spreading uneasiness. Acting like this had no logic, especially if it is compared to how the relevant expert bodies in Austria and Germany acted."

Beović claimed that quarantine is a better solution than testing, and it is, but "your government did not introduce quarantine for people returning from Croatia at all - everyone who returned by the evening last Monday avoided quarantine."

Hysteria was being spread among people for ten days, but all who were in Croatia during the most critical period returned to their jobs on Monday without being tested or quarantined. "You were not stricter than Austrians and Germans, as you tried to portray, but you actually did nothing to control the infections."

Repovž also notes that it is not true that the authorities are able to compare data on entry and exit from the country, which people were threatened with. "These databases do not exist. This is exaggerating and arrogantly inventing things, while control of infections is missing. Why?".

He wonders if Beović perhaps believes that "hysteria and fearmongering are means to an and - people in general being aware of the situation, expressing solidarity and acting safe. This does not even work in small children."

What Beović has done is only spoiling people's vacations and scaring the entire nation, while actually not introducing quarantine or testing. "You introduced quarantine only now, when families with small children, older persons and people with lower income are going on holiday."

Demokracija: Judiciary should admit mistakes

STA, 27 August 2020 - The right-wing weekly Demokracija says that the "swamp" of Slovenia's judiciary is slowly drying out, judging by "obvious nervousness seen in reactions by the (heads) of the judiciary and the prosecution to criticism occasionally offered by [Prime Minister] Janez Janša".

Under the headline Red Vipers, the weekly says on Thursday that judges and prosecutors in Slovenia are not held accountable for the mistakes they make.

Even though they have been proven to hand down wrongful rulings, at odds with the rule of law, and charges borne out of political constructs or confrontations, judges and prosecutors continue to defend their work.

"None of them ever has tried to correct the wrongs in the Patria case. Nobody has even apologised," the weekly says about the defence corruption case that saw Janša being found guilty of accepting the promise of a bribe before a retrial was ordered and the case became statute barred.

And now they are trying to avoid facing the consequences in the lawsuits brought against them by Janša and his party, the Democrats (SDS), the paper says. The most recent manoeuvre is a local purview ping-pong in lawsuits against a prosecutor and judges involved in the Patria case.

"Lawyer Franci Matoz is right in saying that the 'comic tragedy has become a serial'," the paper says in reference to Janša's lawyer.

Slovenia has never really broken away from revolutionary law, and the judiciary and the prosecution "can not only cost you your good name but can force you to spend your time and money on (impossible) defence from something that is very obviously a fabrication".

"But neither the prosecutor using manipulated evidence nor a judge from the judicially 'indicative circle', face any consequences." Not only that, they get promoted. The public should be afraid of such judges and prosecutors and should not keep quiet.

"Every day, the every-man should come to the swamp and help dry it, because the smelly and slimy untouchables can do injustice to him as well," the paper says, also accusing the "mainstream media" of supporting untrue indictments and rulings, while attacking those who dare speak out about injustices.

All our posts in this series are here

What follows is a weekly review of events involving Slovenia, as prepared by the STA.

If you’d like to keep up on the daily headlines then follow those here, or get all our stories in your feed on Facebook.

FRIDAY, 21 August
        LJUBLJANA - The Health Ministry unveiled a long-awaited draft bill on long-term care, envisaging a full coverage of rights from mandatory insurance for long-term care, with the contribution rate proposed at 1.47%, while the employer and employee contributions for mandatory health insurance to be reduced.
        LJUBLJANA - The Health Ministry presented a draft bill under which unvaccinated children will not be allowed to go to public kindergartens and private kindergartens co-funded by the state. This is to prevent unwarranted avoidance of vaccination.
        LJUBLJANA - Nine countries, including neighbouring Croatia, were put on Slovenia's red list of countries where risk of coronavirus is high and quarantine required for most returns. To prevent waiting times at the border, holidaymakers were given until Monday midnight to return from Croatia without quarantine.
        LJUBLJANA - President Borut Pahor received Supreme Court president Damijan Florjančič, with the pair agreeing that it would be useful to hold a round-table debate on the rule of law. The meeting was held after Florjančič took issue with the communication between the three branches of power, most notably PM Janez Janša's controversial tweets.
        IDRIJA - The long-running battle for control of industrial conglomerate Hidria was won by the group of managers around Iztok Seljak and Dušan Lapajne. Following the takeover bid published in July by the pair together with partners, the Seljak-Lapajne camp managed to acquire enough shares for definitive majority ownership.
        LJUBLJANA - Between 1,500 and 3,000 protesters gathered in Prešeren Square for the 18th Friday evening protest, this time criticising the government's oversight of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), and letting it know they intended to insist on protests "as long as necessary".
        LJUBLJANA - Slovenia's registered unemployment rate was down 0.1 of a percentage point in June over May to 9.2%, Employment Service data showed. In February, before the start of the coronavirus pandemic, the rate was 7.9%.

SATURDAY, 22 August
        LJUBLJANA - The new German ambassadors to Slovenia, who will take turns in their duties in what is the first such ambassador duo appointed by Germany, told the STA they saw a solution to the coronavirus crisis in a united EU. Natalie Kauther and Adrian Pollmann said this would be one of the main priorities as their country took over the EU presidency on 1 July.
        LJUBLJANA - 300 persons infected with Sars-CoV-2 came to Slovenia from abroad, of whom 55% from Croatia, showed data obtained by National Institute of Public Health (NIJZ) epidemiologists and labs for the period between 1 June and 21 August. The majority of a total of 165 persons who brought the virus from Croatia, or 120, were aged 15 to 34, almost all of them men.
        SEŽANA - The 30th season of the Slovenian football league got under way with a ten-day delay due to Covid-19 infections in some clubs. Celje, crowned champions for the first time in history last season, will be defending the title as the ten participating clubs are closer than ever in terms of quality.

SUNDAY, 23 August
        LJUBLJANA - The 15th Bled Strategic Forum (BSF) will be very different from previous years due to the coronavirus, but the line-up will nevertheless be exceptional, Peter Grk, the secretary general of Slovenia's highest-profile international political event, told the STA in an interview. Restrictions will be in place and some panels will be held online. There will be fewer guests, the forum will be just a one-day event, and there will be no youth and business sections.

MONDAY, 24 August
        LJUBLJANA - Jelko Kacin, the government's spokesperson for Covid-19, described Croatia as a "serious threat to all other EU countries" due to the coronavirus situation there. He told Reporter magazine that Croatia successfully tackling coronavirus was in Slovenia's strategic interest.
        LJUBLJANA - The Janez Janša government's rating dropped for the fourth month in the latest POP TV poll for August, from 50.4% to 53%, but the senior coalition Democrats (SDS) continued to top party rankings with 18.2%, double the support mustered by the two opposition parties sharing second spot, the LMŠ and SD.
        LJUBLJANA - Foreign Minister Anže Logar and his Georgian counterpart David Zalkaliani discussed over the phone bilateral relations, and agreed the economic and political cooperation as well as cooperation as part of multilateral forums should be further enhanced. Logar presented Slovenia's preparations for its upcoming EU presidency in the second half of 2021, which will also highlight Eastern Partnership.
        LJUBLJANA - The opposition Left proposed to parliament to call a consultative referendum on a bill envisaging EUR 780 million in defence expenditure in 2021-2026, arguing the money that could be spent wiser would go for an imaginary enemy.
        LJUBLJANA - Archaeologists presented details of the remains of about 250 victims exhumed in July from a mass grave uncovered in May in Kočevski Rog, a forest area riddled with chasms in the south-east. Most of the victims were young men, mainly civilians, killed in the autumn of 1945. Jože Dežman, the chair of the government commission for mass graves, believes the cave could provide some clues as to what happened to the Novo Mesto Homeguard, a group of several thousand who failed to flee after WWII.
        LJUBLJANA - The opposition Marjan Šarec List (LMŠ) said its MEP Irena Joveva (Renew) had recently become a target of insults on social media and web portals linked to the ruling Democrats (SDS), including web portal Nova24TV, because of her Macedonian descent. The party called on PM Janez Janša who is a co-owner of Nova24TV, to make sure "his portal stops publishing insulting, nationalist and racist articles". The prime ministers's office would not comment.
        BRNIK - The flight school of the bankrupt former air carrier Adria Airways was recently acquired by an institute led by former Constitutional Court chief justice Peter Jambrek, who entered the venture with Chinese partner Kai Dai in a bid to "become the biggest flight school in the world". The Institute for Constitutional System and Human Rights bought the school for EUR 7,500, the asking price at the first public auction.

TUESDAY, 25 August
        LJUBLJANA - Coalition Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) leader Aleksandra Pivec lost a vote of confidence at a session of the party's governing council. However, she remains the leader for now as the council did not take a vote on her dismissal, having suspended the session for differing interpretations as to whether it can dismiss the party president given that she was elected by a congress.
        STRASBOURG, France - The CoE's platform on journalism posted a piece entitled War on the Media in which PM Janez Janša presents his take on the Slovenian media landscape. It also posted an accompanying letter, in which the government argues the piece should be read in its entirety to fully understand Janša's views about the media with a leftist bias. The government sent it there after the platform posted in May a statement by the Slovenian Journalist Association saying Janša's piece was yet another instance of discreditation of journalists.
        LJUBLJANA - Foreign Minister Anže Logar and his Argentinian counterpart Felipe Carlos Sola affirmed the good cooperation between Slovenia and Argentina and expressed interest in further strengthening ties as they spoke over videolink. They also called for an increase in trade. Logar also held a telephone talk with his Swiss counterpart Ignazio Cassis.
        LJUBLJANA - The Slovenian tourism industry, which has been severely affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, saw an upbeat trend in Slovenian tourist arrivals and nights in July, partly offsetting the low numbers from the first half of the year, the Statistics Office said. Over 653,000 arrivals were recorded at accommodation facilities in July, down 27.5% compared to July 2019, with the number of nights down by 18.5% to 2.07 million.
        KOPER - Net profit at port operator Luka Koper dropped by 40% year on year to EUR 15 million in the first six months of 2020, as net revenue was down 11% to EUR 107 million. EBIT, at EUR 17 million, was down 42% compared to the same period last year and EBITDA dropped by 29% to EUR 31 million.
        LJUBLJANA - The Defence Ministry, organisations involved in civil protection and disaster relief, and municipalities signed an agreement on cooperation in the phasing of EU funds; they expect EUR 120 million in EU funds by 2027 and another EUR 30 million in own funds to modernise infrastructure, equipment and training.
        POSTOJNA - A migrants rights advocacy group staged a rally in front of the Centre for Aliens, claiming that conditions at the centre were reminiscent of a concentration camp and that the rights of foreigners kept there were violated. The police strongly rejected all the accusations.
        CELJE - Borut Gombač, 58, was honoured with the Veronika Prize for best collection of poetry, while the Golden Coin of Poetry for lifetime achievements went to Iztok Geister Plamen, 74.

WEDNESDAY, 26 August
        BERLIN, Germany - President Borut Pahor and his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier called for a strong and united EU as Pahor paid a working visit to Berlin. He said Slovenia wanted to remain part of the core EU countries while Steinmeier pointed to the union's common future.
        LJUBLJANA - The defence and interior ministries intend to boost cooperation in guarding the state border, so the Defence Ministry said it would tweak the rules and prepare four levels of deployment in line with the defence act provisions which enable soldiers to help the police patrol the border without having police powers.
        LJUBLJANA - ZSSS, the largest confederation of trade unions in Slovenia, criticised several parts of a draft bill on long-term care. It is primarily concerned that it "opens the door wide to pure private practice" and that the standard package of services is not defined.
        LJUBLJANA - A new task force for Roma issues, set under the Janez Janša government, held its first meeting. Its chair, Interior Ministry State Secretary Anton Olaj said Novo Mesto police had recently intensified their presence and preventive activity in areas populated by the Roma community in the south-east in a bid to prevent high rates of violence and crime. More short-term measures were proposed, and the task force will also start drafting legislative changes.
        CELJE - Chemical company Cinkarna Celje saw its net profit plummet by 21% in the first half of the year to EUR 9.9 million while revenue was down 4% to EUR 88.7 million, showed the company's unaudited results.
        LJUBLJANA - Since tourism vouchers became valid on 19 June, the majority has been redeemed at hotels, followed by rooms, self-catering apartments and camps, showed data from the Financial Administration. A total of 511,554 Slovenian permanent residents have used their vouchers, which is 25% of all beneficiaries.

THURSDAY, 27 August
        LJUBLJANA - The government extended the subsidised furlough scheme, one of the main ways in which Slovenia has propped up the economy during the coronacrisis, by a month until the end of September.
        LJUBLJANA - The government confirmed Slovenian primary and secondary school students will start the new school year in classrooms on 1 September, but will have to observe strict anti-Covid-19 guidelines.
        LJUBLJANA - Investors in the Ljubljana Passenger Terminal, a project valued at EUR 370 million, will shortly sign a special memorandum to signal the formal start of the project, Infrastructure Ministry State Secretary Blaž Košorok and Sandor Csanyi, the owner of the Hungarian OTP bank, agreed. The public segment features a new railway station and a new bus station with a parking garage, to by founded by Slovenia, as well as a commercial segment, for which the money should come from OTP.
        LJUBLJANA - Representatives of Slovenian farmers made an urgent appeal to the government to intervene in the market since some purchase prices are so low they do no even cover the cost of production.
        ŠTORE - News portal Necenzurirano reported that the Štore-based manufacturer of rolls and castings Valji, one of the main employers in the Celje area, had been taken over by Austrian company Rudolf Weinberger Holding, which includes Valji's Austrian rival Eisenwerk Sulzau-Werfen.

Siol.net reports that the public debate on changes to Slovenia’s rape law has now concluded, with support for adopting a definition based on consent in place of the current system. The proposed amendment will now go back to the Ministry of Justice where the final version will be prepared before being presented to the National Assembly for a vote.

The current law in Slovenia defines rape based on coercion, and thus if no force is used, or the victim is unwilling or unable to say “no”, then no crime is said to have been committed. This attracted considerable attention in early 2019, when a man who raped a woman was charged with criminal coercion rather than a sex crime, because the woman, passed out drunk in the man's apartment, did not - and could not - resist. The man, from Koper, received a 10-month sentence.

The proposed changes would make every non-consensual sexual act a criminal offence, including those during which the victim did not physically resist the perpetrator or say no out of fear, shock or any other circumstances preventing such action.

STA, 28 August 2020 - The Commission for the Prevention of Corruption (KPK) has launched an investigation after preliminary findings indicated the risk of corruption in alleged wrongdoing of Agriculture Minister Aleksandra Pivec, commission president Robert Šumi told the press on Friday.

The investigation has been expanded to include more persons and several events, as well as several instances of suspected wrongdoing, he said, adding that the launch of the investigation in itself did not preclude its outcome.

The Pensioners' Party (DeSUS), of which Pivec is member, said it supported the move because this was the only way to learn all the facts about the minister's trips to the coast.

Pivec herself has not responded yet, but the Agriculture Ministry told the STA she was currently on a sick leave after feeling frail on Thursday and being rushed to the ER.

The ministry added that the statement forwarded to the media by DeSUS also reflected Pivec's views.

The KP's move comes weeks after media reports that Pivec had taken trips to the coast which were partly personal in nature and featured family and party members but were paid for by a municipality and a company that hosted her in her capacity as minister.

Šumi did not reveal which parts of the integrity act had allegedly been violated by Pivec and did not say how many people are being investigated.

He said that this was not an isolated case, adding that the commission had had received several similar reports and that all cases would be treated the same.

Albert Nabernik, a member of the commission, explained the course of proceedings, saying that a report was followed by a preliminary check.

An investigation is launched only if the latter reveals there is ground to investigate. The person investigated is then informed and the investigation started. "The purpose of the investigation is to either confirm or refute the allegations."

The head of the DeSUS deputy group, Franc Jurša, told the STA he had expected such a decision of the KPK. He also noted that the outcome of the investigation would not change the deputy group's negative opinion of Pivec and their decision to ask her to step down.

STA, 28 August 2020 - 42 new coronavirus cases were confirmed in Slovenia on Thursday when a total of 1,338 tests were performed, the government said as it released the most recent data on Friday. This brought the total number of cases to 2,797, with 428 being active infections, according to the national tracker Covid-19.sledilnik.

The biggest number of new infections, 5, was confirmed in Maribor and 4 in Ljubljana. 22 people were in hospital yesterday, with one requiring intensive care.

Nobody died on Thursday, which leaves the total death toll at 133.

Epidemiologist Maja Grgič Vitek told the press in the afternoon that the figures were not showing any sign of the situation calming down.

Of the 42 new cases recorded yesterday, 22 were transmitted within the country and six came from abroad: two each from Croatia and Kosovo and one each from Austria and Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Whereas weeks ago, the majority of new cases came from abroad, mostly Croatia, the situation has reversed, said Grgič Vitek, pointing out that transmissions within Slovenia surpassed cases from abroad four times.

Meanwhile, the Črneče nursing home has two residents who had tested positive, as well as a staff member. The first case was a new resident who got the infection from her sister before moving in. The second was another resident in the same ward and the third was a nurse who went into quarantine after Covid-19 was confirmed among residents.

The UKC Maribor hospital also said that four employees had been infected, all are members of the administrative staff and do not work with patients.

Men more likely than women to see lockdown as easy

STA, 28 August - A third of Slovenians perceived the coronavirus lockdown to be tough, a survey conducted by the pollster Mediana has shown. But nearly 30% of respondents, most of them men, said the situation was simple or that it improved their everyday lives.

Nearly 20% of the 506 respondents found that the lockdown was very easy and had even improved their lives, while another 20% said it was rather easy.

On the other hand, 20% said the lockdown was hard, while 10% said it was very hard and had tested their mental and physical health.

While significantly more men then women said that lockdown was easy, significantly fewer women agreed with this view.

Nearly 50% of the respondents said TV was their main source of news during lockdown, followed by online news portals, which were the main source of news for about 30%.

The Mediana survey was conducted online between 9 and 10 July.

The latest statistics on coronavirus and Slovenia, and the latest police news on red, green and yellow list countries. All our stories on coronavirus and Slovenia. Can I transit Slovenia? Find out from the police...

STA, 26 August 2020 - The defence and interior ministries as well as the Slovenian Armed Forces (SAF) and the police have agreed to boost cooperation in guarding the state border, said the Defence Ministry on Wednesday, announcing additional measures, including a reform of the rules governing the military's deployment on the border.

The meeting took place on Tuesday and featured Defence Minister Matej Tonin, Interior Minister Aleš Hojs, Chief of the General Staff, Brigadier General Robert Glavaš, and acting Police Commissioner Andrej Jurič.

The Defence Ministry said it will tweak the rules and prepare four levels of deployment in line with Article 37 of the defence act, which enables SAF members to help the police patrol the border without having any police powers.

The green level will signal the deployment of 150 soldiers along the border, the yellow level 400, the orange level 800 and the red level will mean 2,000 soldiers are to be deployed, reads the ministry's press release.

The SAF will also start conducting the majority of their military exercises at areas close to the border in coming weeks to strengthen its presence there and "help citizens who are facing negative consequences of migrations", said Tonin.

STA, 26 August 2020 - Cinkarna Celje, the Celje-based chemical company, saw its net profit plummet by 21% in the first half of the year to EUR 9.9 million while revenue was down 4% to EUR 88.7 million. Operating revenue decreased by 22% year-on-year, show the company's unaudited results, released on Wednesday.

Cinkarna Celje said that the sales revenue has reached 51% of the planned total for this year, while it warned that it changed is valuation system for stocks of finished products this year. This boosted net profit in the first half by 2.35 million, the company explained, adding the effect of the new validation would be neutralised in the second half.

CEO Aleš Skok assessed that given the current circumstances the sales drop had been minimal. The impact of Covid-19 was mitigated by the absence of Chinese producers on the European market at the beginning of the year.

"Reduced production and increased stocks with buyers affected sales negatively in the second quarter," Skok said, while assessing the drop was smaller than was the average on the titanium dioxide market.

Cinkarna spent EUR 5.6 million on investment in the first six months, which is less then a third of the planned amount.

The management of Cinkarna, whose financial situation remains stable, assessed that the results were objectively good and in line with projections.

The return of Chinese competition and the cooling of the global economy could impact results in the second half, but Cinkarna feels the targetted EUR 174.2 million in in total revenue for the year and EUR 14.1 million in net profit are still attainable.

STA, 26 August 2020 - Testing for the novel coronavirus was ramped up to 1,439 on Tuesday, resulting in 36 new cases. There were no Covid-19 deaths recorded yesterday, with the total death toll remaining at 133, the latest data from the government show.

There were 20 persons in hospitals yesterday for Covid-19, but none required intensive care. One person was discharged from hospital.

According to the national tracker covid-19.sledilnik, there are currently 419 active cases, out of the total of 2,722 cases recorded so far in Slovenia.

The biggest number of infections, nine, was recorded in the 45-54 age group, followed by the 25-34 age group (seven) and the 15-24 age group (six).

The data from covid-19.sledilnik also shows that two infections were confirmed among health workers and one in a resident of a nursing home.

The nursing home in Črneče in northern Slovenia could possibly become a new hotspot as infection has been detected in another resident after the first one was detected recently. The first one was admitted to the nursing home last Friday.

Several employees of the nursing home are currently in isolation and the institution has stopped accepting new residents and prohibited all visits and contacts between residents.

Nuška Čakš Jager of the National Public Health Institute (NIJZ) meanwhile told the press that an exceptionally high rise in the number of infections developed in persons in quarantine had recently been recorded in Slovenia.

Infections develop in 10% of persons who have been ordered to quarantine, which means that it is an important measure for managing the spread of infection, added the head of the infectious diseases centre at the NIJZ.

According to her, the number of new confirmed cases among health workers is not increasing drastically, while a high rate of infections among young people could be detected.

Out of the 36 cases confirmed yesterday, seven were imported, of which two each from Croatia and Germany, said Čakš Jager, adding that there were a total of 323 such imports in recent weeks, mostly from Croatia, Bosnia, Serbia and Kosovo.

Considering the latest statistics on infections, it cannot be concluded that the number of new infections will drop in near future, she said.

Government spokesman Jelko Kacin added that the government would get acquainted with the current epidemiological situation in the afternoon and continue the discussion on the preparation of institutions for the expected expansion of infections in the autumn.

STA, 25 August 2020 - A migrants’ rights advocacy group staged a rally in front of the Centre for Aliens in Postojna (Center za tujce) on Tuesday, claiming that conditions at the centre were reminiscent of a concentration camp and that the rights of foreigners kept there were being violated. The police has rejected the accusations.

The group, called Taskforce for Asylum, spoke on behalf of what were around 50 protestors, saying that grave human rights violations were occurring at the centre.

"You can find yourself here if a you are a foreigner and did not bring your residence documents in order in time, and you can stay locked up by up to a year, often without any contact to the outside world or the chance of an appeal," the group said.

In prison people at least know why they are locked up, can get a lawyer and know when they will be released, while in Postojna they are left at the mercy of a single inspector. Suicide attempts are an everyday affair, the Taskforce for Asylum said.

The group claims that "this disgraceful camp" was further expanded in recent months, with the state starting to send asylum seekers there and returning them to Croatian police from there.

It said one facility was a large warehouse with iron bars that now houses asylum seekers, who are left without basic necessities and kept waiting for a decision for weeks and months.

The foreigners handled this way are resisting and are also trying to get the attention of the public with hunger strikes, the Taskforce for Asylum said.

The protesters demanded today that "this concentration camp" be closed immediately and that the refoulement of migrants to Croatia stop.

The police rejected all the accusations, saying all procedures were conducted in line with national and European legislation and international conventions.

According to the police, it is not true that foreigners were sent to the centre without formal decisions. If there are reservations for sending back an individual, this is taken into consideration and the procedure is halted.

Legal protection is provided for all cases, there is also access to a doctor and psychosocial support, the police told the STA.

It also rejected claims of a hunger strike being under way. The foreigners expressed their discontent in different ways, including by occasionally declining food. Thus there was a situation a few days ago where one of the departments rejected dinner in protest over movement restrictions, the police added.

While also rejecting claims food was being supplied through window bars, the police dismissed accusations regarding overcrowded conditions.

There are presently 93 foreigners at the centre, which has capacity for 180. 68 of those currently there are subject to international protection procedures, while 25 are in the process of being returned.