STA, 14 July 2021 - Police dealt with 3,343 illegal border crossings in the first half of the year, almost a third fewer than in the same period last year, when there were 5,127. The most frequently processed illegal migrants were from Afghanistan (644) and Pakistan (633).

As noted by the police, there has been a sharp decline in the number of Pakistani and particularly Moroccan nationals, as the number of illegal migrants continues to be affected by the limited mobility due to the containment of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lately there has been a marked increase in the number of migrants from Bangladesh, as there were 442 in the first six months of 2021 and only 173 in the same period last year. There has also been a slight increase in the number of migrants coming from Kosovo, Turkey and Iran.

The most dramatic decrease was seen in the numbers of migrants from Morocco, as their number dropped from 1,327 in the first half of last year to just 70 this year. The number of migrants arriving from Pakistan has also dropped, from 1,276 in the January-June period last year to 633 in the same period this year.

The highest number of illegal entries at internal EU borders happened at the border with Hungary this year, which shows that problems at this border seem to be increasing. The most exposed border in this respect is still the border with Croatia.

According to the data on illegal crossings of the border by individual police departments, far fewer migrants were processed in the areas covered by the police departments of Ljubljana and Novo Mesto, while increases were recorded in Maribor, Murska Sobota, Celje and Koper.

The total number of persons who were returned to the Slovenian police (77) and of those returned to foreign authorities (1,636) has also decreased slightly in 2021, compared to the same period last year (413 and 3,157, respectively).

The number of illegal migrants who declare their intention to apply for international protection has decreased, except in the case of Pakistani nationals. However, migrants still mostly resume their journey after reaching Slovenia, heading towards their destination countries.

The total number of applications for international protection received by Slovenian authorities in the first six months of 2021 is quite similar to the same period in 2020, standing at 1,270 and 1,467 respectively.

STA, 21 April 2021 - A 21-year-old British citizen was arrested on Saturday for illegally transporting a five-member family from Iraq after a wild chase during which he crashed into police vehicles several times. The man is in custody.

The 21-year-old driving a car with Spanish licence plates was pulled over by border police in Srednja Bistrica on Friday evening, but when asked to show documents he put the car in reverse and deliberately hit the front part of the police car before leaving in the direction of the motorway, the Murska Sobota police department said on Wednesday.

The police immediately followed him, but he hit the breaks several times to hit the police car behind him. He also collided with another police vehicle during the wild chase.

Police then used stingers with the 21-year-old bypassing the first one and driving right through the second one, being forced to pull over with flat tyres just before reaching the motorway. But the man continued to run on foot and police lost track of him.

After inspecting his vehicle, police found a five-member family from Iraq in the car. The foreigners, who entered the country illegally from Croatia, applied for international protection. The women sustained light injuries during the wild chase.

The Slovenian police informed their counterparts in other countries of the fugitive and he was apprehended by the Austrian police on Saturday morning.

The man faces charges for illegal crossing of the border, prevention of official proceedings and taking revenge on a public official. He has been remanded in custody.

The 21-year-old was already processed by the Radgona police at the beginning of the month after he refused to pull over but continued speeding on the motorway, where he caused a traffic accident. He tried to run away on foot, but police eventually caught him.

The man was also involved in a police chase in the Celje area last year, after he refused to pull over. The chase also involved deliberate collisions with police cars and running away on foot.

STA, 19 April 2021- Celje police have indicted 15 suspects over 49 counts related to drug trafficking, transport of illegal migrants, classified information leaking and bribery, Celje Criminal Police chief Damijan Turk told the press on Monday.

The police completed a large investigation of drug trafficking, which started in mid-2020, conducting 16 house searches and arresting 12 suspects last week.

Seven suspects were brought before an investigating magistrate on Friday, with six remanded in custody.

The drug ring based in the broader area of Celje featured several citizens of Slovenia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and North Macedonia, who purchased, stored and sold cocaine and cannabis across the country.

Its individual members also organised transport of illegal migrants from Croatia via Slovenia to Italy.

"In two cases, police pulled over individual members of the ring with 58 migrants and two drivers while they were en route to Italy," said Turk.

"In another two cases, the ring managed to successfully take illegal migrants across the border from Slovenia to Italy."

During the investigation, the police realised the ring had some sensitive information, only to discover that they had received them from a Celje District Court employee.

The stenographer, working for the criminal department since 2018, provided the ring information such as what activities police would conduct or where, for personal gain.

The suspect has disclosed at least 100 sensitive documents, as a result of which a large number of investigations were less successful than they could have been.

If found guilty, he could go to jail for up to eight years, Turk said in a statement to the press.

The Celje District Court said the stenographer was no longer employed at the court, and no longer has access to the court's premises or data bases.

It explained that the suspect had had access to the sensitive data as part of his job.

The 15 suspects have been indicted for 38 counts related to drug production or trafficking, six to leaking classified information, one to giving a bribe, and four to illegal crossing of the border.

The suspects are aged from 22 to 50, with the oldest among them having had run-ins with the police before.

STA, 18 March 2021 - The police processed 630 cases of illegal border crossings in the first two months of 2021, down from 1,171 in the same period in 2020, in what is a continuation of the seasonal downward trend. Most frequently illegal migrants come from Afghanistan, whereas the number of caught Moroccans has significantly declined.

The police expect the trend to turn upwards again come milder weather.

The number of Afghan migrants who were caught crossing the Slovenian border illegally in January and February this year stands at 113, followed by citizens of Turkey (79), Croatia (72) and Bangladesh (64).

The number of refusals of entry to Slovenia to third country nationals increased by more than 10% in the wake of stepped up Covid-related border restrictions.

Moreover, due to beefed up monitoring amid the epidemic, the total of unauthorised residence cases also increased. Such violations mostly arise from overstaying of citizens of Western Balkans countries.

On the other hand, the number of illegal migrants who request international protection decreased as they usually resume their journey after reaching Slovenia, heading towards their destination countries.

A total of 257 asylum status requests were made in the first two months this year, which compares to 386 in the same two months in 2020. International protection was granted to three persons (18 in January-February 2020), whereas in 21 cases (44) the request was denied.

The number of illegal border crossings in the first two months of 2021 and 2020 according to citizenship

Citizenship            No. of crossings
                       2021        2020
----------------------------------------
Afghanistan             113         143
Turkey                   79          34
Croatia                  72          59
Bangladesh               64          29
Kosovo                   54          34
Iraq                     34          86
Pakistan                 29         257
Egypt                    28          65
Syria                    23          41
Bosnia-Herzegovina       23           3
Iran                     17          14
Slovenia                  9          36
Others                  111         420
----------------------------------------
Total                   630        1171

Source: Police, Interior Ministry, Office for the Support and Integration of Migrants

STA, 12 March 2021 - The police in the north-eastern region of Pomurje pulled over a car near Srednja Bistrica on Thursday to find a 35-year-old citizen of Moldova illegally transporting 11 Pakistani citizens. They were handed over to Croatian authorities.

The Moldavian, who was driving a Renault Scenic with Austrian licence plates, was pulled over just before 7am. After police found the Pakistani men in his car, he was placed in custody and will face an investigative judge.

Police also found three foreigners hiding in a truck in Gornja Radgona. The cargo was brought to a Gornja Radgona company from Serbia, but when its trailer was opened, three men jumped out and ran away only to be caught by police soon after.

The men were citizens of Afghanistan and had entered the trailer on 9 March in Serbia to enter Slovenia illegally, the Murska Sobota police said. They too will be returned to Croatian authorities.

Koper police meanwhile discovered 30 illegal migrants this morning in a van with Slovenian licence plates, which initially refused to pull over near the Škofije border crossing with Italy in the south-west.

STA, 26 January 201 - Two Italians who crashed their car packed with illegal migrants into a police car in September last year have been sentenced to more than two years in prison, after which they will be expelled from the country.

The newspapers Delo, Dnevnik and Slovenske Novice report that Francesco Mandielo, 29, and Salvatore Mascolo, 23, both from Naples, were sentenced to two years and nine months and two years and one month, respectively, by the Ljubljana District Court.

They were both also given a fine of two thousand euro and a ban on re-entering the country for four years as judge Martin Jančar meted out the sentence as proposed by the prosecution, which was the mildest possible and took into account mitigating circumstances.

"The court accepts the defence counsel's argument that the defendants are the smallest wheels in the machinery of organised illegal migration, but it's these small wheels that allow the whole wheelwork to run," the judge was quoted as saying by Dnevnik. He said economic distress did not justify crime.

The pair pleaded guilty, asking for mercy. Their lawyers argued that the pair were but the final link in the chain of a criminal ring smuggling migrants from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Italy.

The pair picked up six migrants - five from Bangladesh and one from Pakistan - on the Slovenian-Croatian border, putting four of them on the back seats and two in the boot.

A police patrol tried to pull them over near Ivančna Gorica, but Mandielo, attempting to avoid the police first scraped the car against the guard rail on the exit from the motorway, and then after several sharp manoeuvres bumped into the police vehicle behind.

The impact left the police officers inside lightly injured.

According to the reports, the migrants paid EUR 4,000 each to be transported from Velika Kladuša in Bosnia-Herzegovina to Italy to the organiser, allegedly a Pakistani.

STA, 15 January 2020 - Slovenian police handled 14,592 attempts by migrants to cross illegally into the country last year, which compares to 16,252 the year before, a decline of roughly 10%. Two-thirds of the migrants were from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Morocco.

In releasing the statistics for 2020, the police noted the slowdown in migration was due to coronavirus restrictions and weather conditions. A new surge is expected once it gets warmer in spring.

Most of the migrants intercepted last year were nationals of Pakistan (3,519), Afghanistan (3,038) and Morocco (2,414), as the number of Algerian migrants was reduced to less than a third of the figure recorded the year before (627 from 1,910).

The police also noted a fall in the number of migrants who express the intention to apply for asylum in Slovenia but then, after being accommodated in asylum centres, often continue on their journey to what are the destination countries of their choice.

Slovenia returned 10,025 illegal migrants to foreign law enforcement authorities last year, most of them (9,950) to Croatia, which compares to 11,164 in 2019.

Foreign authorities returned 1,440 migrants to Slovenia, which compares to just 643 the year before, as Italian authorities returned 1,116 migrants, more than four times as many as the year before, and Austria returned 176, more than twice as many as in 2019.

There are at the moment 153 asylum applicants accommodated in Slovenia and 788 persons who have had international protection status recognised, of whom 163 are currently abroad.

A total of 3,548 applications were filed in 2020, including claims for renewed procedure, which compares to 3,821 applications in 2019, show data from the police, Interior Ministry and Government Office for the Support and Integration of Migrants.

STA, 28 September 2020 - Slovenian police apprehended several large groups of migrants at the border and inland over the weekend and arrested several smugglers, as migration pressure intensified before the typical winter lull.

In Ilirska Bistrica area in south-western Slovenia police apprehended a total of 144 migrants in several stings on Sunday, a number typically recorded in the region in a week. The majority were citizens of Bangladesh and Pakistan, the Koper police said.

In eastern Slovenia, near Ormož, police stopped a van with 22 migrants, more than half of them from Bangladesh. Two smugglers, a Moldovan and a Ukrainian citizen, were arrested.

A sting by the Financial Administration and police in Celje turned up a van with 34 migrants driven by a Belgian driver.

The smugglers face criminal charges, while procedures concerning migrants are ongoing. The majority will probably be returned to Croatia.

Commenting on the stings, Interior Minister Aleš Hojs told the press on Monday that the figures showed "the organised market for migrant smuggling is in full swing" and that police were doing a good job. Around 100 smugglers of migrants are currently in detention in Slovenia.

Hojs indicated the police may once again ask parliament to activate a special article of the defence act that gives soldiers limited police powers for patrolling the border. Previous such attempts were deflected by the opposition.

He also indicated Slovenia and Croatia are considering a new way of patrolling their shared border. Croatia has proposed mixed police patrols, while Slovenia suggested that both sides alternately step up patrols along different sections of the border in "a zipper system of sorts".

Overall, he said cooperation with Slovenian law enforcement was good as Croatian police "unconditionally accept back everything we intercept".

STA, 21 September 2020 - Foreign Minister Anže Logar, who attended a session of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday, told reporters after the session that the EU's new migration pact was eagerly anticipated and that Slovenia would continue to oppose mandatory distribution of migrants, which the country made clear in June.

"We are anxious to see the proposed package, but it is difficult to comment on individual solutions before it is unveiled. We know roughly which way the solutions will go, but this is a very complex matter and the changes are very comprehensive, so I do not dare to comment any further at this point," Logar said after the ministerial, responding to a journalist question about whether Slovenia was happy with the planed solutions.

Seven EU members, including Slovenia, addressed a letter to the European Commission in June, expressing their resolute opposition to compulsory redistribution of migrants among EU member states. The letter was signed by Slovenia, all four Visegrad countries - Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as Estonia and Latvia.

Logar said today the letter made Slovenia's views very clear. "I think the arguments that Slovenia will use in this debate will go along those lines in the future as well," he said.

Asked whether Slovenia would support the new pact, he said that it was impossible to say exactly which way the debate would go at this point.

The new migration pact that the Commission will unveil on Wednesday is expected to be based on a mechanism of obligatory solidarity, which is to include transferring migrants in close connection with returning illegal migrants.

The new approach is said to be more flexible than the solutions which have been on the table so far and which member states failed to find common ground on.

The initiator of the new pact, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, has said that all 27 members states are ready to make concessions.

Logar agrees that a compromise will be found but he stresses it will be within the frameworks of what countries find acceptable.

The Slovenian foreign minister noted this package would be discussed during the German-Portuguese-Slovenian presidency. If no agreement is reached during Portugal's stint, Slovenia will lead the debate, so Logar discussed the matter today with his German counterpart, and the French foreign minister in Paris on Sunday.

Asked about the upcoming report on the rule of law in EU countries, which the Commission is to release on 30 September, Logar said Slovenia was looking forward to the debate on the rule of law and would take active part in it, so that the bloc would have a credible, transparent and fair overview of the situation.

The report will open a dialogue and a quest for a model that would offer an overview of the situation in EU countries in the future as well, Logar said in an on-line press conference.

He added the EU's drawing up the report was a smart way of overcoming the impasse following alleged violations of the rule of law in Poland and Hungary.

Logar also held courtesy meetings with Executive Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans and European Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius. He presented them Slovenia's priorities for the upcoming EU presidency from green technologies to water diplomacy.

STA, 18 September 2020 - The police processed some 10,220 illegal crossings of Slovenia's borders until the end of August, up 3.3% compared to the same period in 2019. In summer, the figure was on the rise, in August alone the police handled more than 2,600 cases of illegal migrations, mostly involving citizens from Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan.

In the first two months of 2020, the number of illegal crossings of the border was up on the same period in 2019, followed by a lull in illegal migrations caused by anti-corona restrictions. In May, the figure increased to roughly 900 and in summer months it shot up, police data show.

In June, police processed some 1,800 foreigners who had crossed the border illegally, some 2,430 in July and 2,670 in August, and the upward trend is expected to continue in the coming months.

A total of 2,920 asylum seekers were recorded in Slovenia in the first eight months of 2020, most of them were from Morocco. The figure dropped by 13% compared to the same period last year. The police believes the decrease is mostly a result of a drop in the number of Algerian citizens stemming from new migration routes.

The asylum seekers mostly continue on their way heading towards their final destinations after being accommodated at reception facilities in Slovenia, said the police.

According to the Interior Ministry data, 500 requests for international protection were filed in August, mostly by citizens of Morocco and Pakistan. A total of 475 requests were processed, ten were granted protection and 430 cases were stayed.

The latest relevant data show that in the first seven moths of this year, 72 persons were given the asylum status and 85 in the entire 2019. Processed cases totalled 1,548 until the end of July and 3,838 in 2019.

The STA is releasing charts showing relevant statistics regarding the numbers of illegal crossings and asylum seekers or those already granted international protection.

Number of illegal crossings of the border in the first eight months of 2020 and 2019 according to citizenship

Nationality           Number of crossings
                        2020       2019
----------------------------------------
Pakistan                2813       2360
Morocco                 2205        774
Afghanistan             1821       1071
Bangladesh               776        685
Algeria                  577       1440
Croatia                  403        217
Iraq                     332        562
Egypt                    200        161
Syria                    171        469
Iran                     163        504
other                    762       1653
----------------------------------------
total                 10,223       9896

Number of persons handed over to Slovenia's police and handed over by Slovenian authorities in the first eight months of 2020 and 2019

                Handed over to                Handed over to
               Slovenian police             foreign authorities

country            2019     2020              2019     2020
----------------------------------------------------------------
Italy              207      682                58       19
Austria             62       98                 9        6
Croatia             19       18              6457     6781
Hungary              3        6                 0        8
airport            177       86                20        9
----------------------------------------------------------------
total              468      890              6544     6823

Source: Police, Interior Ministry, Office for the Support and Integration of Migrants