Ljubljana related
STA, 27 August - The police apprehended on Monday two migrant smugglers transporting a total of 38 migrants in two vehicles in the Kočevje and Cerknica areas in south Slovenia.
Nearby the town of Kočevje the police apprehended on Monday morning a Romanian driver transporting 31 migrants in a van.
According to the Ljubljana Police Department, police officers stopped the van following a local's tip-off and apprehended the driver upon discovering his human cargo. None of the 31 migrants has requested for international protection.
Other recent cases
Meanwhile, a Lithuanian was caught in the vicinity of Cerknica on Monday evening trying to smuggle seven Afghanistan citizens who have illegally crossed the border and are still being processed.
The Novo Mesto police department meanwhile reported on Tuesday the capture of two smugglers transporting larger groups of migrants.
Nearby Črnomelj in the south, the police caught an Italian who was transporting 34 Pakistani and Afghan migrants in a single van on Monday afternoon.
Moreover, a Slovenian citizen was apprehended at Mokrice in south-eastern Slovenia on Sunday evening transporting five Kurdish illegal migrants with Turkish citizenship. He has been placed in detention.
STA, 16 August 2019 - July saw the highest number of illegal crossings of the state border in a month since the 2016 migration wave - more than 1,700. During the first seven months of this year the upward trend in such crossings was steeper than last year, according to police.
In July a total of 1,740 illegal crossings were detected, while the police recorded 7,415 in the first seven months, mostly apprehending illegal migrants from Pakistan, Algeria and Afghanistan.
Related: Foreign Nationals in Slovenia, by Country, Region & Continent
Below you will find the charts with the numbers of illegal border crossings, including the year, citizenship, period, police department and the number of persons handed over to Slovenia from foreign authorities or vice versa.
The charts also feature the number of international protection requests as well as the number of approved requests and the number of asylum seekers by their accommodation so far.
Number of illegal border crossings in the first half of the year by year
year number of crossings ------------------ 2010 339 2011 419 2012 399 2013 660 2014 384 2015 181 2016 273 2017 754 2018 3635 2019* 5568 *up to 31 July Source: Police
Number of illegal border crossings in the first seven months of 2018 and 2019 by citizenship
citizenship number of crossings
2018 2019
------------------------------------
Pakistan 1446 1705
Algeria 643 1153
Afghanistan 482 811
Morocco 250 592
Turkey 106 371
Bangladesh 22 521
Iraq 228 364
Iran 271 368
Syria 432 318
Tunisia 60 141
other 819 1071
-----------------------------------
total 4759 7415
Source: Police
Number of processed illegal border crossings in the first seven months of 2018 and 2019 by police department
department number of crossings
2018 2019
----------------------------------------
Koper 2032 2807
Novo Mesto 1978 1918
Ljubljana 225 1556
Maribor 355 676
Celje 52 134
Murska Sobota 98 176
other 18 148
Source: Police
Number of illegal border crossings and international protection requests in 2018 and in the first seven months of 2019 by month
number of crossings number of requests month 2018 2019 2018 2019 --------------------------------------------------- January 246 319 172 205 February 210 328 223 216 March 207 1079 129 356 April 644 1381 274 334 May 1286 1298 365 404 June 1040 1270 267 287 July 1114 1740 287 387 August 1152 381 September 999 256 October 1270 201 November 717 170 December 357 150 -------------------------------------------------- total 1-6 3633 7415 1430 2189 Source: Interior Ministry, Police
Number of persons returned to the Slovenian authorities and to foreign authorities in the first seven months of 2018 and 2019
returned to Slovenian returned to foreign authorities authorities country 2018 2019 2018 2019 --------------------------------------------------------------- Italy 193 184 39 55 Austria 15 53 8 8 Croatia 6 15 1715 4827 Hungary 12 1 2 0 airports 94 163 20 18 --------------------------------------------------------------- total 320 416 1784 4908 Source: Police
Number of international protection requests in 2018 and in the first half of 2019 as well as their status
status number
2018 2019
---------------------------------------------------
total number of requests 2875 1802
requests to repeat the procedure 40 13
repeated procedures 27 30
closed cases 2886 1762
approved status 102 40
rejected applications 135 54
halting of procedure 2372 1535
discarded applications 277 133
resettlement 40 0
relocation 21 0
Source: Interior Ministry
Number of asylum seekers and persons with international protection and their accommodation up to today
Asylum seekers
accommodation number ----------------------------------------------- Asylum Centre 182 Kotnikova Street, Ljubljana 79 Logatec 23 dispersed 33 other 29 ------------------------------------------------ total 346
Persons with international protection
accommodation number ----------------------------------------------- Ljubljana Integration House 0 Maribor Integration House 25 Government-approved flats 18 Asylum Centre 1 Kotnikova Street, Ljubljana 1 Logatec 0 Student homes 14 Private accommodation 506 abroad 115 ----------------------------------------------- total 680 Source: The Government Office for the Support and Integration of Migrants
STA, 31 July 2019 - The police apprehended on Tuesday a Serbian citizen who was transporting six Turkish Kurds who had entered Slovenia illegally. He was caught only after a chase, during which he caused a traffic accident in Ormož (NE).
As the initial attempt by the police to stop the vehicle failed, the police started following it, with the chase lasting some ten minutes.
Running away from the police, the Serb caused a traffic accident at a roundabout in Ormož, the Maribor Police Department said on Wednesday.
A criminal complaint will be filed against the driver, while the illegal migrants from Turkey will be returned to Croatia.
According to the General Police Administration, a total of 2,018 traffickers in human beings have been apprehended in Slovenia since the beginning of 2018, including 175 foreigners.
Between 1 January and 22 July this year, the Slovenian police have apprehended 188 such traffickers, including 168 foreigners. Detention has been ordered for 156 of them.
STA, 20 July 2019 - Koper police apprehended on Friday over 120 migrants in the Ilirska Bistrica area close the southern border with Croatia's and the western border with Italy. Most of the migrants, the bulk of which are Afghan citizens, will be returned to Croatia today.
The Koper Police Administration said it discovered several small camps in the woods near Šembije on Friday afternoon. Reinforcements, police dogs and a helicopter were called in as the migrants started to flee.
Police have assessed that the group numbers around 200 in total and the search continues, with 122 people apprehended so far.
Most of them, 94, are Afghan citizens, while 27 are either from Pakistan or Bangladesh. Most will be returned to Croatia today. At least five of the migrants are minors and have been taken to an asylum centre.
STA, 18 July 2019 - The Slovenian government has adopted a framework migrations strategy that addresses both legal migrations as a major source of much needed labour, as well as illegal migrations as a source of security threats and challenges with regard to integration.
The strategy, the first such document in Slovenia, deals with migrations "over a long-term horizon in a multi-faceted and comprehensive way, prioritising a better understanding of all aspects of migrations," the government said on Twitter on Thursday.
In illegal migrations, Slovenia plans to focus on fast verification of eligibility for international protection, effective return of such persons, and elimination of sources of risk to national security.
The government says that "orderly and safe" migrations are beneficial for everyone, while illegal migrations "threaten the lives, security, health and basic human rights of migrants" and fan anti-immigration sentiment in recipient countries.
For legal migrations, the strategy aims to focus on eliminating structural imbalances on the labour market by attracting foreign workers as well as adopting concrete measures to entice Slovenians who have moved abroad to return.
The document was drafted by a task force that included ministries, law enforcement and intelligence services and will be followed up by action plans as well as a more detailed strategy for economic migrations.
Non-governmental organisations dealing with migrations welcomed the adoption the strategy and said they had been involved in the drafting of the document. Nevertheless, they said additional stakeholders should have been involved as well.
It would have made sense to involve trade unions, academia, and local government, said Katarina Bervar Sternad of PIC, a platform that offers legal advice to NGOs.
The document is an improvement on the original blueprint but involving more stakeholders would have given it a more long-term perspective on the challenges and opportunities that migrations bring, she told the STA.
STA, 8 July 2019 - Slovenian President Borut Pahor and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed a rise in illegal migrations on the Balkan route as they held a bilateral meeting in Sarajevo on Monday on the sidelines of a SE Europe cooperation event.
Predsednik Pahor se bo nocoj udeležil delovne večerje ob zaključku predsedovanja BiH Procesu sodelovanja v Jugovzhodni Evropi (SEECP), ki poteka v Sarajevu. Ob robu obiska se je PRS Pahor sestal s predsednikom Republike Turčije Recepom Tayyipom Erdoğanom. pic.twitter.com/jKUOyEX4dR
— Borut Pahor (@BorutPahor) July 8, 2019
Pahor told Erdogan about the recent rise in the number of migrants entering Slovenia illegally from Croatia, Pahor's office said in a release.
Erdogan in turn outlined Turkey's plans about the four million refugees in Turkey, complaining the EU was not fully meeting its financial commitments related to them.
The two presidents are worried that the situation in the Middle East could worsen, and hope that a diplomatic solution will be found to the Iran nuclear deal issue.
Bilateral relations were another topic on the agenda, with Pahor and Erdogan sharing a view there were many opportunities to further develop and deepen political dialogue and economic cooperation.
Pahor met Erdogan before a working dinner of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) summit, which brings Bosnia-Herzegovina's SEECP presidency to an end.
The Slovenian president had decided to attend the summit due to enhanced dialogue with all Western Balkan leaders and as a sign of support for Bosnia.
The summit will draw to a close on Tuesday with a plenary session and the adoption of a closing declaration.
However, Bosnia will not formally hand its presidency over as planned since Kosovo has sent any representative to the summit in protest of Bosnia's treatment of its representatives.h
STA, 8 July 2019 - Prime Minister Marjan Šarec said on Monday that security on Slovenia's southern border would be beefed up, including with new equipment such as drones, after meeting with Ilirska Bistrica officials and civil society representatives to discuss the situation on the border with Croatia.
Šarec, visiting the south-western town along with Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar and Police Commissioner Tatjana Bobnar, said that he understood locals' feelings of unease about the situation.
Ilirska Bistrica Mayor Emil Rojc pointed out that the number of illegal border crossings had doubled since Poklukar's first visit to the area.
"We've never said there was no migration issue," said the prime minister, adding that the need for strengthening border controls had been acknowledged.
Šarec announced the expected arrival of additional soldiers to the area as well as the deployment of new police equipment, including border patrol drones, and expansion of the border fence.
However, Šarec also said that Slovenia's border patrol had been effective in meeting set expectations and that "we cannot settle for various forms of fear-mongering, which are sometimes politically-motivated as well".
Šarec will also visit the Kostel and Črnomlje municipalities later today.
STA, 5 July 2019 - The police continues to detect a rising trend in the number of illegal crossings of the Slovenian border, with the number standing at 5,345 in the first half of the year or 47.1% more than in the same period in 2018. There is an increasing number of illegal migrants from Pakistan, Algeria and Morocco.
The biggest number of illegal crossings of the borders in the first half of the year was processed by police officers from the Koper, Novo Mesto and Ljubljana police departments.
By the end of June, 2,718 of illegal migrants expressed the intention to ask for international protection, which is 7.5% less than in the first half of 2018 (2,355).
According to the latest report, migrants who express the intention to ask for international protection frequently continue on their way to their actual target countries after being accommodated in asylum centres.
In the first half of the year, police officers recorded 355 cases in which foreigners crossed an internal Schengen border to Slovenia without valid documents or permits, which is 13.2% less than in the same period in 2018.
Pakistanis accounted for the most of such illegal entries, while they also dominate the statistics of illegal crossings of the external Schengen border.
A majority of such cases were recorded on the Slovenian border with Italy (226). The police notes that this is a relatively small number of cases, with the number of illegal entries on the border with Italy having dropped.
A total of 2,178 third country nationals were denied entry at border crossings for failing to meet the conditions to enter Slovenia or other EU countries, which is 10.8% more than in the first half of 2018.
Most of them were rejected on the border crossings with Croatia, and the biggest number of them were citizens of Afghanistan, followed by citizens of the Balkan countries.
The number of foreigners who were processed because they were not permitted to reside in Slovenia or other EU countries increased by almost a third to 2,728.
A majority of the cases related to expired residency permits, mostly involving citizens of the Western Balkan countries. An increasing number of Moldovan citizens are also being processed for this reason, as a consequence of visa liberalisation.
Slovenian police officers returned a total of 3,534 foreigners to the authorities of neighbouring countries in the first half of the year (up from 1,174), most of them to the Croatian authorities.
Foreign authorities meanwhile returned 333 persons to Slovenia in this period, including 23 Slovenian citizens, the report says.
STA, 17 June 2019 - The aid provided to migrants by the Legal and Information Centre (PIC), a group of NGOs, does not constitute a crime, Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar told the National Assembly during questions time on Monday. He was answering a question from the opposition Democrats (SDS), who are appalled that these NGOs get state funding.
This comes less than a month after PIC president Katarina Bervar Sternad was reported to the police by Zmago Jelinčič, the president of the opposition National Party (SNS).
Poklukar confirmed today that the police saw an increase in the number of times PIC informed the police of illegal migrants entering the country.
Apart from informing the police of the migrants' location, PIC also sent to the police their names and informed them of the migrants' medical state, Poklukar said.
The minister said that migrants had told the police a PIC representative had given them directions, handed out leaflets with directions and advised them on how to conduct themselves in police proceedings and other procedures.
Both the relevant District Prosecution and the Supreme State Prosecution shared the view that PIC's actions did not amount to a crime, according to Poklukar.
The Supreme Prosecution also said that PIC's activities would have been criminal if they were done for financial gain, the minister added.
The answer was provided to SDS deputy Branko Grims, who said in his question that PIC was actively helping migrants in abusing the asylum procedure.
STA, 10 May 2019 - The investigating magistrate in the case of the abduction of a man by illegal immigrants has ordered that all three suspects arrested on Wednesday remain in detention. Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar meanwhile said the police were in control of the situation on the border with Croatia and that "there is presently no need for protest rallies".
A 25-year-old Morocco citizen and two 18-year-olds from Algeria are accused of abduction, theft and car robbery, prosecutor Srečko Hočevar told the media.
The three were arrested on Wednesday by Italian police and handed to Slovenia on suspicion they had abducted a 79-year-old man working in his vineyard near the Croatia border and had used his car to get to Italy. The man was released before the border.
Responding to the developments today, minister Poklukar said he regrets "that this criminal act occurred", but is "happy that it ended well".
"The Slovenian police are effective and successfully completed the arrest of the perpetrators together with the Italian police," the minister said on the sidelines of a fair in Portorož.
While Poklukar is convinced Slovenia is a safe country with a functioning national security system, he said the country was facing an increase in the number of crossings on the Croatian border.
"In the recent days we stepped up police activities and increased the number of army units in municipalities with a higher number of illegal crossings."
Commenting on the protest rally announced for Saturday in the Bela Krajina border region, the minister said that the police were in control and that no protests or discontent were necessary.
Analysts fear rise of anti-migration populism after incident
STA, 10 May 2019 - Two analysts quizzed by the STA feel that Wednesday's abduction of an elderly man by illegal migrants will have a profound effect on the ongoing EU election campaign. Andraž Zorko of pollster Valikon and Igor Kršinar, a journalist for the weekly Reporter, also agree PM Marjan Šarec made a mistake by not responding to the incident more aggressively.
Zorko said "nothing will be the same" after Wednesday, arguing the incident confirmed the darkest fears spread by the far-right - "that it is not refugees who are entering Slovenia but economic migrants who can be violent".
He added the development would boost the campaign of the parties with the hardest anti-migration stances, primarily the recently formed Homeland League (DOM) followed by the opposition Democrats (SDS).
While Zorko believes the opposition National Party (SNS) and its head Zmago Jelinčič, "a left nationalist", can only hope to win over a few centre-left voters frustrated with their primary parties' migration policies, Kršinar believes Jelinčič will be the biggest beneficiary of the incident.
Kršinar said Jelinčič had already stood out during Thursday's campaign debate on TV Slovenija: "He might even make it to the European Parliament, which will definitely be a special kind of affair."
Kršinar does not believe DOM will benefit, arguing the party has not attracted enough media attention and that unlike Jelinčič, DOM's leader Bernard Brščič is not a capable public speaker.
"Jelinčič says in a few words what many people want to hear but do not have the nerve to say. So called serious parties actually have a problem in that they cannot perform in the manner Jelinčič is doing it," he said.
Kršinar meanwhile feels that it remains unclear for now how much the SDS can gain. "Of course it will try to use the incident in its favour and it will be among the more important participants of Saturday's rally in Bela Krajina" border region, where the immigrants abducted the man and his car to get to Italy.
As for Šarec's decision to reject the SDS's call for a session of the National Security Council, Kršinar said the prime minister "made a major mistake and missed the opportunity to publicly demonstrate his determination to secure order and peace".
Zorko also said this was "a very bad message to the people living on the border", while both also highlighted the failure of Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar to appear at Thursday's press conference of the police.
The pair agrees a determined reaction would have been necessary from the state, since the situation is feeding the growth of populist movements.
"A determined PM would have immediately sent the army to the border and extended the border fence," Kršinar said, suggesting Šarec's LMŠ party may even fail to get a single MEP elected in the upcoming election because of the situation.
