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.

All our stories on immigration can be found here

STA, 17 March 2019 - Opposition Democrats (SDS) president Janez Janša has told the Croatian newspaper Jutarnji list that the Slovenia-Croatia border arbitration decision is legally binding but that it still allows for a bilateral agreement on a section of the border or its entirety. He also argued Hungary's Victor Orban "has a historically correct stance on migration".

Janša, whose SDS won the 2018 general election but was not able to form a government, said that the border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia, two newly created states, is "one of the most specific situations in history".

He argued that "according to all realistic assessments", the international arbitration tribunal's June 2017 decision on the border "is in Croatia's favour and to the detriment of Slovenia".

"Still, Croatia is rejecting it and Slovenia is insisting on it," Janša said.

He said the SDS and "almost half of Slovenian voters" had rejected the arbitration agreement, "because we predicted things would evolve the way they did".

"I believe two wise governments could find a relatively elegant way out of this situation in the future," the former prime minister added.

Janša feels that some manoeuvring space exists that would allow Croatia to get a bilateral agreement and Slovenia a border that would make more sense than the one determined in arbitration.

On Slovenian politics and Europe

Commenting on the political situation in Slovenia, he said the minority government was fully dependent on "the extremist Left" and labelled the revised 2019 budget too wasteful.

As for the EU, he urged stabilisation and a greater voice for small member states like Croatia and Slovenia.

Janša expressed support to European People's Party (EPP) Manfred Weber as the EPP's spitzenkandidat, while arguing he preferred the EU development vision of Germany's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) head Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer to that of "socialist and liberal" French President Emmanuel Macron.

Janša is convinced that the label of populism is being abused due to large coalitions at the German and European level that are looking "for some kind of third enemies", while adding nationalism can also present a problem.

Moreover, Janša believes that European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, who he feels should not be interfering in party politics, has started a conflict with Hungarian PM Viktor Orban within the EPP.

He highlighted the strong support for Fidesz in Hungary and argued that Orban "has a historically correct stance on migration".

As for a potential Fidesz exclusion from the EPP, Janša compared the gay rights efforts of EPP members from the north of Europe to Fidesz's policies. While the SDS is opposing LGBT adoption, it is not demanding that parties supporting it should be excluded from the EPP.

The EPP needs both the Christian socialists from Luxembourg and Hungary's Fidesz, since this is the only way for it to be strong and influential, Janša added, saying most serious EPP members expected a compromise solution and a fully preserved EPP.

All our stories on Slovenian politics can be found here

STA, 6 March 2019 - Transparency International Slovenija (TI) has reported the director of the Agency for Commodity Reserves Anton Zakrajšek to the state prosecution over suspected abuse of office in the procurement of what is currently a 179-km fence on the border with Croatia.

Following allegations that the procurement of the fencing favoured a specific contractor, TI obtained part of the documentation after almost three years of efforts, receiving a nod from the Information Commissioner and engaging in a tug-of-war with the agency in courts.

Screenshot from YouTube

TI believes Zakrajšek abused his powers when signing a razor wire contract with Minis in 2015 which included the provision of an advance payment of EUR 860,832 or 70% of the contract's total value.

Minis has been the main supplier of "technical obstacles" that Slovenia started erecting on the Croatian border during the migration crisis. It has received more than EUR 9.3m from the agency, while the remaining suppliers have been paid a total of EUR 6m, the newspaper Dnevnik reported today.

TI says the agency would have required special consent from the finance minister for the advance payment, which it does not appear to have received, while Zakrajšek is arguing the payment had never been executed.

The official, who is adamant that Minis was always picked as the cheapest bidder, argues the advance payment had been conditional on the supplier securing a bank guarantee in the full amount of the payment, which it failed to do.

What is more, the Finance Ministry said this provision only applied to direct budget users, while the agency is not defined as a budget user at all.

TI responded by saying "the alleged advance payment is only one of the suspicions elements, while confirming or rejecting the suspicion is in the domain of the relevant authorities". The NGO told the STA it saw no reason to withdraw its report.

TI only asked for a portion of the documents, as much of the fence procurement documentation remained classified as internal. The STA has not yet received an answer from the government about whether it planned to declassify them.

The agency said in a press release in the afternoon that the documents were classified because their contents could put in jeopardy the government's objectives to regulate migration flow.

Moreover, Zakrajšek said in the press release that the agency had asked Minis for a bid because the company had already been cooperating with the Interior Ministry at that point and the department had no complaints. The Interior Ministry also provided the specifications for the fence, the press release said.

The fencing contracts, signed under special provisions governing procurement in cases labelled classified, have been raising eyebrows for some time.

Alenka Bratušek, the head of the SAB party who was an MP at the time, caused waves after a 2017 session of the parliamentary Commission for Public Finance Oversight, when she claimed the documents studied had been manipulated with and that the chosen bidder had not been the cheapest.

SAB secretary general Jernej Pavlič said today that Bratušek had forwarded her findings at the time to the prosecution.

Zakrajšek insists the chosen bidder had been the cheapest and fastest and claims Bratušek is misleading with her accusation, which he says is based on a mistake that occurred in one of the minutes.

Media have also been wondering about the choice of Minis, with POP TV reporting on Tuesday that the company and a local office of the Modern Centre Party (SMC), the senior coalition party between 2014 and 2018, shared the same address for a while.

SMC leader Miro Cerar responded to the reports by saying the intensive migration pressure in 2015 required the decision to protect people and property.

"This was the task I put to the ministers," he said, expressing his belief the decisions followed professional criteria and legal obligations. "I believe Economy Minister Zdravko Počivalšek acted in due fashion."

All our stories on corruption and Slovenia are here

STA, 23 January 2019- Slovenian police officers detected a total of 9,149 illegal crossings of the state border last year, which is almost a five-fold increase compared to the year before (1,934). The biggest increase was recorded with the citizens of Pakistan, the police and the Interior Ministry have announced on their websites.

In addition to Pakistanis, the biggest number of persons who were caught crossing the national border illegally were from Afghanistan and Algeria.

As it had been expected, the number of illegal crossings of the border increased significantly in April and May, mostly because of the more favourable weather and a new route opening up across Bosnia-Herzegovina.

The police have noted for the STA that the number of illegal crossings of the border did not mean that the same number of different persons had committed the act.

It is possible that one person gets caught crossing the border illegally more than one time, the police said, adding that the Interior Ministry had no information about how many persons had actually crossed the border illegally in 2018.

The number of persons returned to Slovenia by foreign authorities has been increasing lately, in particular on the border with Italy. A majority of them are foreigners who leave asylum seeker centres and try to reach their destination countries.

A majority of foreigners who cross the border illegally within the Schengen system still come from Italy, but their number has been decreasing. The number of entries from Austria has meanwhile been increasing.

The Interior Ministry has granted international protection to 102 asylum seekers last year. At the moment, there are a total of 274 asylum seekers in Slovenia, while there are 640 persons who have been granted international protection.

Number of illegal crossings of the border in 2018 by citizenship

citizenship        number of crossings

--------------------------------------

Pakistan                   2,711

Afghanistan                1,066

Algeria                      913

Iran                         797

Syria                        708

Iraq                         554

Morocco                      397

Turkey                       260

Bangladesh                   221

India                        201

Kosovo                       135

other                      1,186

--------------------------------------

total                      9,149

Source: Police

Number of persons returned to the Slovenian authorities
and to foreign authorities in 2018

country          returned to             returned to

           Slovenian authorities    foreign authorities

---------------------------------------------------------------

Italy                351                     68

Austria               37                     22

Croatia               14                  4,653

Hungary               19                      5

airports             178                     36

---------------------------------------------------------------

total                599                  4,784

Source: Police

STA, 6 December 2018 - Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar welcomed in Brussels on Thursday the EU Council's partial agreement on the reform of Frontex, the European border guard, which includes a stronger mandate in the returns of migrants and cooperation with third countries. Slovenia meanwhile remains reserved with regard to the remaining elements in the reform proposal.

Poklukar said on the sidelines of the Justice and Home Affairs Council session that Slovenia supported the stronger mandate and cooperation with countries beyond those directly neighbouring on the EU.

It is however reserved about the remaining points of the proposal, which also seeks to establish a European Border and Coast Guard standing corps of 10,000 operational staff with executive powers by 2020.

Photo: frontex.europa.eu

Slovenia is in principle in favour of a gradual formation of a standing corps, it is however reserved about the 10,000 figure, Poklukar said.

He also noted that it had still not been possible to see under what criteria or by which key responsibilities would be divided among member states.

Poklukar reiterated that all European police forces are facing staff shortages and that this is also a major problem of Slovenia's police force.

The minister moreover expressed Slovenia's interest to have its missions sent to Western Balkan countries.

Since Frontex, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, already has a lot of possibilities for cooperation with third countries on the basis of existing legislation, Poklukar expects concrete steps already in the coming months.

Photo: frontex.europa.eu

In line with expectations the ministers failed to make a breakthrough in a bid to find a comprehensive agreement on reform of the EU's asylum system.

European Migration Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos repeated that time was running out and some key dossiers would have to be agreed before the Euro elections in May.

Considering a lack of progress on asylum reform, the commissioner called for breaking up the asylum package, by passing five dossiers right away, while continuing debate on the two most contentious ones, including mandatory refugee quotas.

Minister Poklukar said that Slovenia would like the issues resolved and that "this must be in a package", but he did say that much debate would still be needed to align views.

STA, 13 November 2018 - The increase in migrations has not led to higher crime rates in the border areas, but in the capital Ljubljana crime involving asylum seekers has increased, according to police figures presented at a session of the parliamentary Commission for the Oversight of Intelligence and Security Services on Tuesday.

The commission examined rumours of a spike in crime, but statistics for the police districts Novo Mesto and Koper, where the bulk of migrants are caught, do not bear that out, according to commission chair Matej Tonin.

But a spike in criminal acts, in particular theft and drug offences, perpetrated by asylum seekers has been recorded in Ljubljana and police said they would increase presence of officers in hot spots in the capital

But beyond petty crime, Tonin stressed that police have arrested 169 human traffickers so far this year, of which 29 Slovenian citizens and 140 foreigner nationals.

Slovenian police have registered almost 8,000 illegal border crossings so far this year, with the biggest groups coming from Pakistan, Algeria and Morocco.

Roughly half of them were returned to Croatia, while the majority of the others "evaporated in the course of the asylum procedure," according to Tonin.

STA, 13 November 2018 - While most local races revolve around things such as traffic and the local economy, illegal migrations have featured prominently in the election campaign in the town of Črnomelj in the south east. Incumbent Mayor Mojca Čemas Stjepanovič seems to be caught between a rival calling for more anti-migration measures, and opponents of such measures.

Although four candidates are running for Črnomelj mayor, the two main protagonists are Čemas Stjepanovič, a candidate of the Pensioners' Party (DeSUS) and the Social Democrats (SD), and Maja Kocjan, put forward by the Democrats (SDS) and supported by the New Slovenia (NSi).

Kocjan, a municipal councillor of the SDS who has been very active in an anti-immigration group called the Bela Krajina Civil Initiative, advocates a harsher approach to migrations.

Illegal immigration in Slovenia rose by 400% in first nine months of 2018

The number of illegal crossings of the Slovenian border surged by more than 400% year-on-year between January and September, to 6,667. As many as 2,050 of the crossings were recorded in the Črnomelj area and the number rose to 2,498 until 4 November.

Kocjan believes Slovenia should send a signal to migrants that the Slovenian border cannot be penetrated, so she is calling for additional fencing along the bordering Kolpa river in places where there is no fencing yet.

Čemas Stjepanovič told an election debate aired by the commercial broadcaster Kanal A at the end of last month that additional fencing was being erected in the most critical areas and that future steps would depend on the number of migrants crossing the border.

She also expressed her grievances regarding the costs of migrations that fall on the municipality. "This means that we have less money available for other purposes," she said.

Kocjan would also like soldiers to protect the border and that the state authorities were more susceptible to the safety concerns of local population, including about any plans to set up migrant centres in the region.

But while Kocjan has criticised Čemas Stjepanovič for not being determined enough in the face of migrations, the opponents of anti-migration measures claim the opposite on social media.

A Facebook group opposing the border fence in Bela Krajina is upset by Čemas Stjepanovič's collaboration with the police in the erection of additional fencing along the Kolpa.

Saying that the two parties which support her advocate a different approach to migration, the group claims Čemas Stjepanovič is taking on the same anti-migration rhetoric ahead of election as the SDS candidate, Kocjan.

"Another election this year is being marked by repressive measures and scaremongering in what is no emergency situation," the group wrote on Facebook at the beginning of the month.

Immigration not such an issue in other border areas

Interestingly, migrations have not emerged as a major topic in any of the other municipalities affected by migrations, even though it seemed they might become a prominent issue in particular for centre-right parties.

The issue has come up only in Kočevje, where the National Party (SNS) candidate, Alenka Jelenovič, one of the four candidates challenging incumbent Mayor Vladimir Prebilič, voiced opposition to the setting up of a migrant centre unperturbed by there being no such formal plans for the area.

All our local election coverage can be found here

STA, 12 October 2018 - Slovenia expressed reservations Friday about EU plans to set up a permanent European Border and Coast Guard with 10,000 members, in particular about staff contributions, executive authority, financing and the time frame. 

STA, 12 October - German Chancellor Angela Merkel said she was willing to assist in the resolution of the Slovenia-Croatia border dispute and praised Slovenia's efforts to protect the Schengen border after she held talks with Slovenian Prime Minister Marjan Šarec in Berlin on Friday. 

The Austria Press Agency (APA) reported yesterday that Vienna has decided to continue its current border check regime with Slovenia and Hungary for at least another six months.