Ljubljana related
STA, 9 March 2020 - Due to a spike in illegal migration across the Slovenian-Croatian border, the Ormož police station in the north-east of the country will get six new containers to process migrants.
The Maribor Police Department has underscored that the new container units, to become operational on Tuesday, will not be used for migrants' accommodation.
In a press release, the department noted that the number of cases of people illegally crossing the border into Slovenia rose by 73% last year with the cases in the region under its jurisdiction increasing nearly three-fold to 1,449.
The new containers are being supplied in order to organise work more efficiently and to ensure safety at work, the release reads.
"The containers are intended exclusively for handling and police detention of groups of persons who cross the state border illegally in the Maribor Police Department area, and will in no case serve to accommodate migrants."
Similar container units had in the past been placed in the areas under the jurisdiction of the police departments of Novo Mesto, Ljubljana and Koper.
STA, 1 March 2020 - Slovenian authorities say they are prepared for a possible increase in migrations after Turkey decided to open its borders with Greece claiming it can no longer cope with a new migrant wave from Syria.
"We are ready for a possible increase in illegal crossings of the national border. We have a variety of activities and measures available that we will adjust to the situation on the ground," the Interior Ministry said Saturday evening.
The ministry said it was monitoring the situation in the region and exchanging information with countries in the region on an ongoing basis, stressing that police were in control of the situation.
Police said they were exchanging information with other countries and making adjustments as necessary.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has raised fears of a renewed surge in migrations along the Balkan route after announcing Turkey was opening its borders towards Europe.
Reports by global media suggest thousands of migrants have already crossed into the EU and are en route north.
STA, 20 December 2019 - Police processed more than 15,200 illegal crossings of the border by the end of November this year, as much as some 70% increase compared to the same period in 2018. A total of 3,640 migrants have asked for international protection.
Citizens from Pakistan, Algeria and Afghanistan were processed by police officers most often.
This year's situation shows a steeper increase year-on-year. August saw the greatest surge of illegal crossings of the border per month since the 2016 mass migrations, with the situation getting more manageable in autumn when the temperatures started dropping.
The police has recorded an increase in the number of asylums requests as well - in 2018, 2,875 asked for international protection, while in the first eleven months of 2019, 3,640 did the same. Most of those procedures have been completed, with 67 persons granted asylum.
Considerably more illegal migrants were handed over to the Croatian authorities this year as well - some 10,640 compared to 4,590 in 2018. Most of them were from Pakistan.
STA, 1 December 2019 - The Slovenian police recorded 14,066 illegal crossings of the border in the first ten months of the year, which is almost 72% more than in the same period of 2018. The largest groups of migrants came from Pakistan, Algeria and Afghanistan.
August was the month with the highest number of illegal crossings of the border since the 2016 mass migrations, whereupon the number of monthly crossings started dropping as the weather started to deteriorate.
The number of people who expressed the wish to stay in Slovenia was also up. Some 4,441 expressed the intention to seek international protection on contact with the police, up from 3,952 in the year before.
But the statistics show most people treat Slovenia as a transit country, with many who submit formal requests leaving the country before their cases are heard.
Of the over 4,400 who expressed their intention to seek asylum, only 3,350 eventually did so and the vast majority of cases were suspended because people had left, presumably to other EU countries.
The actual number of asylum seekers staying in Slovenia is thus low relative to the overall number of migrants, show figures by the Government Office for the Support and Integration of Migrants.
On 28 November there were 335 persons in asylum centres awaiting the processing of their requests for international protection and 697 residing in Slovenia who have already been granted international protection
All figures below are from official police and Interior Ministry data.
Illegal crossings in January-October, by citizenship
2018 2019 -------------------------------- Pakistan 2,531 3,777 Algeria 832 1,752 Afghanistan 956 1,519 Morocco 343 1,112 Bangladesh 172 1,090 Syria 620 754 Iraq 466 694 Turkey 221 618 Iran 684 604 Croatia 274 301 Other 1,087 1,845 -------------------------------- TOTAL 8186 14,066
Illegal crossings and requests for asylum in 2018,
first ten months of 2019
Month Crossings Asylum requests
2018 2019 2018 2019
-------------------------------------------------
January 248 319 172 205
February 210 326 223 216
March 210 1,075 129 356
April 644 1,389 274 334
May 1,286 1,306 365 404
June 1,043 1,266 267 287
July 1,119 1,793 287 387
August 1,152 2,379 381 388
September 999 1,988 256 356
October 1,275 2,225 201 417
November 722 170
December 358 150
-------------------------------------------------
Total Jan-Oct 8,186 14,066
Persons returned to Slovenian police and persons returned
to foreign authorities by Slovenian police, Jan-Oct
Returned to Returned to
Slovenian police foreign authorities
Country 2018 2019 2018 2019
------------------------------------------------
Italy 343 235 59 68
Austria 29 77 16 13
Croatia 8 25 3,906 9,653
Hungary 18 5 5 2
Airport 150 211 30 25
------------------------------------------------
Total 548 553 4,016 9,761
Number of requests for asylum and their status in 2018,
first ten months of 2019
Status
2018 2019
------------------------------------------------
Requests 2,875 3,350
Requests for repeat procedure 40 25
Repeat procedure 27 47
Solved cases 2,886 3,234
Asylum granted 102 62
Asylum denied 135 102
Procedure suspended 2,372 2,792
Dismissed requests 277 278
Permanent move 40 0
Relocation 21 0 STA, 28 November - Two Syrian illegal migrants died last night as a car carrying eight Syrians crashed into the motorway fence on the Ljubljana-Koper motorway near the town of Vrhnika.
The accident happened on Thursday at around 1:30am as the car started to skid while overtaking a lorry and returning onto the main lane.
Three Syrian citizens fell out of the boot, of whom two died and the third is still being treated, Primož Kadunc of the Ljubljana Police Department told the press today.
He said a fourth person had sustained only light injuries, while all the other migrants had asked for international protection in Slovenia.
There was another person aged under 18 in the car, but was not injured.
Police apprehended the 42-year-old Bosnian driver and will press charges against him for enabling the Syrians to illegally enter Slovenia and causing a car accident.
Kadunc also said it was suspected the migrants could have tuberculosis, but the police said later in the day all the persons had been checked for contagious diseases, but were cleared of the suspicion.
The Koper-bound motorway was closed for around five hours after the accident.
STA, 8 November 2019 - A 20-year-old Syrian died on Thursday in front of the police station in Ilirska Bistrica due to hypothermia and exhaustion despite medical assistance and resuscitation attempts.
He was brought to the police station by a Greek woman and two brothers who live as refugees in Germany.
The location of the police stationAccording to the Koper Police Department, the 20-year-old called his brothers on the phone telling them he was stranded somewhere in the woods near Ilirska Bistrica and was unable to continue his journey.
He asked them to come find him, sending them his coordinates. Along with the Greek, who was the driver, the brothers found the 20-year-old, taking him to the nearby police station and calling for help.
A firefighter was the first to respond, calling a doctor who tried resuscitating the 20-year-old. The autopsy has shown that he has died of hypothermia and exhaustion.
STA, 4 November 2019 - Slovenian police have arrested nine foreigners who tried to help migrants illegally cross the border and processed around 150 cases of illegal border crossing in the south-west of the country since Wednesday.
On Saturday, police spotted a car with German licence plates in the town of Kozina running a red light and then speeding up towards Italy.
Notifying Italian police, Slovenian police followed the car into Italy, where it crashed into another car in Basovizza, the Koper Police Department said on Monday.
The car was driven by an Iraqi with an Iraqi woman co-driver, both of whom had their status approved in Germany. They were transporting two Iraqi illegal migrants and a child.
Once apprehended, the foreign citizens were taken to an Italian hospital and the investigation was taken over by Italian law enforcement.
On the same day, police pulled over three cars registered in Italy near the town of Knežak.
They arrested a Romanian, an Italian woman and three Pakistani citizens for organising illegal transport of migrants across the border.
All twelve foreigners whom the suspects brought to Slovenia without proper documents were sent to a centre for foreigners. Ten of them were Eritreans.
Two days earlier, an Albanian citizen driving a car with Italian licence plates and transporting two Albanian illegal migrants was also arrested in the south-west.
Both illegal migrants were sent back to Croatia, and an investigating judge placed the driver in detention.
On Friday, a 53-year old Croatian citizen was found transporting three Turkish illegal migrants. He too was placed in detention.
STA, 29 October 2019 - A project presenting stories of refugee and migrant children in Slovenia carried out by the Časoris on-line magazine for children has been awarded this year's Intercultural Achievement Award (IAA) in the media category, conferred by the Austrian government.
Representatives of Zavod Časoris, the publisher of the magazine, received the award from the Austrian Federal Ministry for Europe, Integration and Foreign Affairs at a ceremony in Vienna on Monday.
The award supporting intercultural projects related to education, youth, women, media, migration and integration went to the magazine for its project Stories of Children of the World among more than 200 competing projects from 31 countries.
Announcing the news, the publisher said that it was the first project from Slovenia to receive the award.
As part of the project, the on-line magazine has presented since 2017 a total of 17 stories of children from various countries; their customs, culture and tradition.
This year, seven of these children were revisited to see how they have integrated in the new environment in Slovenia and what helps them the most in the integration.
The creator of the project, journalist and editor Sonja Merljak Zdovc, said on the occasion that the project wanted to give a voice to those who were otherwise not heard.
"These are children who came to Slovenia from other countries - unaccompanied, as refugees or migrants, who were fleeing from war or poverty, and dreaming about a better, safer and more decent life," she added.
You can see examples of stories from Časoris, in both Slovene and English, here
STA, 21 October 2019 - An international police investigation into trafficking in illegal migrants has concluded with criminal complaints filed against 10 persons, including four Slovenians. They are charged with at least 24 cases of transportation of illegal migrants across the border.
The investigation into the trafficking of migrants to the EU through the Balkan countries, which has been taking place since April, has been conducted by the police forces of Slovenia, Croatia, Italy, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Europol.
Their representatives offered some fresh statistics on illegal migration to the EU as they presented the operation at a press conference in Koper on Monday.
Uroš Lavrič of the General Police Administration said that the Slovenian police had detected an increased number of criminal gangs which organised trafficking in illegal migrants.
One of the cases which prompted the international police cooperation was a wild pursuit of a Slovenian who was transporting three Iraqis in his car, and who was stopped by the Italian border police only in Trieste.
Dejan Jurič, the head of the Koper police department, said that at least ten persons had participated in the criminal gang, and that it was headed by a 28-year-old Slovenian from the Piran area.
According to him, sufficient evidence has been collected to prove at least 150 illegal crossings of the border by citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Eritrea and Afghanistan.
Criminal complaints have been written for a total of 24 criminal acts of illegal crossing of the border, with one criminal act related to illicit drugs and one criminal act of illegal production and trafficking in arms.
A total of 150 migrants who have crossed the Slovenian border illegally have been apprehended, and seven of the suspects have been detained.
The migrants most frequently crossed the border in the area of the border crossings of Dragonja and Jelšane in the south-west and in Babno Polje in the south.
The smugglers charged them between EUR 1,500 and EUR 3,000 for the transportation from Serbia to Italy. Had the operation succeeded, the criminal gang would have earned up to EUR 450,000 said Jurič.
Lavrič pointed to the "uncompromising behaviour of the smugglers" lately, as they were endangering migrants with reckless driving, driving under the influence of alcohol or by putting a large number of migrants in vehicles.
In the last 30 days alone as many as six cases were recorded of a smuggler transporting between 24 and 38 foreigners in a single vehicle, he added.
The statistics shows that the number of related criminal acts processed by the Slovenian police this year is up by 71% compared to the same period last year (365 to 213).
The number of related criminal acts committed as part of a criminal ring increased almost seven-fold, and the number of cases of trafficking in illegal migrants for material gain increased by 59% (from 132 to 210).
According to Lavrič, last year the Slovenian police apprehended 218 persons who were transporting illegal migrants across the border in a total of 153 cases.
Until 18 October this year, there were a total of 260 such cases, an increase of 132% compared to the same period last year (112).
So far a total of 379 smugglers of illegal migrants have been apprehended, including 37 Slovenian citizens, and 312 of them ended in detention. They were transporting a total of 2,246 illegal migrants.
Svevlad Hoffmann, the chief inspector of the border police of Bosnia-Herzegovina, said that the criminal gang had been well organised, transporting around 350 illegal migrants across the Bosnian border.
He expressed the hope that the EU would recognise the effort and provide the Bosnian police with staffing, material and technical assistance so that it could be equipped comparably to border police forces in the west.
Gabor Stankovič of the European Migrant Smuggling Centre noted that the Balkan migration route was still a "hot potato" for the EU, adding that "migrations are not a problem of one country, but the entire EU."
Stankovič noted that Bosnia-Herzegovina was facing enormous migration pressure, adding that at least half of the smuggling cases reported to Europol came from the Western Balkans.
STA, 16 October 2019 - The Slovenian police recorded a drop in illegal migration in September, however the number of illegal border crossings in the first nine months of the year is still 70.5% above last year's figure.
Since the beginning of the year, police handled 11,786 cases of people crossing into the country illegally, which compares to 6,911 in the first nine months of last year.
More than 3,000 of them were from Pakistan, with roughly 1,600 from Algeria and 1,300 from Afghanistan, data from the police show.
The number of migrants seeking asylum has been increasing as well. As many as 3,856 asked for international protection in the eight months to the end of August, which is more than in the whole 2018.
After being accommodated in asylum centres, the migrants often continue on their way to their chosen destination countries. Most of those are citizens of Algeria.
The number of third-country citizens turned away at the border rose by almost 14% year-on-year to 3,397 in the first nine months of the year. Most of these were denied entry at the border with Croatia.
Slovenia returned a total of 8,050 illegal migrants to foreign law enforcement authorities in the first nine months of the year, most of them (7,956) to Croatia.
In the same period, 491 were returned to Slovenian authorities, most of them (213) by Italy. In the same period last year 436 migrants were returned to Slovenia.
