Police officers and those living near Slovenia’s southern border have long warned that illegal migrants have very good instructions on which route to take to Slovenia. But now it turns out that they are already being given instructions in Bosnia in Herzegovina, detailing Slovenian and European legislation. They are also told exactly what to do when they arrive in Slovenia, so that the police do not return them to Croatia. A so-called non-governmental organisation, the co-owner of which is also Darko Štrajn from Črnomelj, is very active in this.
On Wednesday, the Civil initiative against the Migrant Centre in Bela krajina published a facsimile of a notice, which shows that on the 21st of August 2018, at 19.19, they received a call from Katarina Bervar Sternad, the director of the Peace Institute Ljubljana (“Mirovni inštitut”), which is privately owned, and one of the co-owners is also Darko Štrajn from Črnomelj (who now lives in Ljubljana). The Peace Institute is also the co-owner of several other institutions, which supposedly operate as non-governmental organisations, and as such, are funded by taxpayers’ money, as well as by the funds of the elderly billionaire George Soros, whose aim is to bring as many migrants as possible to Europe.
The director instructed and threatened the police
The notice from the Police station Črnomelj further shows that Bervar Sternad introduced herself as the director of the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs – which is also co-owned by the Peace Institute Ljubljana – and said that they had been called by foreigners who were in the area of the Črnomelj Police station. She told the police that the migrants were located near the settlement of Učakovci and that they all wished to apply for international protection.
She then sent a “GPS location of the place where the foreigners are” to the phone of the police officer on duty and, at the same time, sent it to the e-mail of the Črnomelj Police station. In the e-mail, she provided the names and birth data of four Afghan migrants. In the e-mail, Bervar Sternad also threatened the police officers “that if the aliens were to be returned to Croatia, she would file criminal charges against the police officers.”
The notice of the Police station Črnomelj also says: “When stating their reasons for seeking international protection, they state that they are applying for international protection in Slovenia because they were advised to do so by representatives of the NGOs from the Republic of Slovenia who visited them in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” The migrants also said that representatives of NGOs in Bosnia and Herzegovina had given them instructions on what to do when they arrived on the territory of the Republic of Slovenia so that they would not be returned to Croatia. The migrants also handed a copy of the instructions to the police officers during the police procedure. The leaflet contains the exact instructions, as well as the contact telephone numbers of the NGOs, Slovenian Philanthropy, the association ODNOS, and the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs.
The situation is similar in Ilirska Bistrica
A similar thing is also happening at the Ilirska Bistrica Police station. An official notice shows that in July, at the camp Velika Kladuša, a migrant contacted the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs. The camp was visited by “Andrej and an unidentified woman who introduced herself as a lawyer from the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs.” They explained to the migrant how to apply for asylum and also offered him free legal assistance in obtaining asylum status in Slovenia. They gave him a telephone number, which he used to communicate with them through the whatsapp mobile application. He told the police that he had been in contact with the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs the whole time. He said that before they left Bosnia and Herzegovina, he had to provide the centre in question with information about the people travelling with him. Representatives of the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs had told him that it would not be difficult for the police to detain them when they crossed the Croatian-Slovenian border and that he should also keep them informed of the police procedure.
And if the police would not accept his asylum application, the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs told the migrant that he should inform them immediately, so that “the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs will take action against the police.” The migrant did not want to tell the police whether the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs had also advised him where to cross the Croatian-Slovenian border. However, another document shows that in Velika Kladuša, “NGOs give out their telephone numbers to the migrants.” One of the migrants said that he had written down the phone number and was also given instructions that they could go to Slovenia illegally and then apply for asylum there. “The man we got the number from was supposed to call the Slovenian police himself and report us and make sure we could not be returned to Croatia.”
There were eight migrants in the group, and the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs’ representative instructed them to go to the railway line, where it would be easiest for the police to track them down. Then they went to the road and saw a police car. A migrant said, “I turned on the light on my phone and started waving at them, so that they would see us and detain us.”
Instructions for migrants in Arabic
The illegal migrants are also given instructions in Arabic at the police stations. This also shows who to call for help in Slovenia.
In this case, too, the Legal-Informational Centre for NGOs is mentioned, which is co-owned by the Peace Institute Ljubljana (which is entirely privately owned), and the co-owner of the latter is also Darko Štrajn, who is also the representative of the Alternative Academy Association (“Društvo Alternativna akademija). It was this very association that opposed the protest of the people from Bela krajina against the establishment of the migrant centre in Metlika.
This article was originally published on our web portal on the 14th of September, 2014. But now, we are even worse off. The Ministry of the Interior is headed by Tatjana Bobnar, who has recruited Simona Zaratnik to her cabinet. She has given her the mandate for migration matters. And Zavratnik was previously employed at the Peace Institute.
