Slovenian police officers dealt with 15,456 illegal crossings of the Slovenian border in the first five months of the year, which is three times more than in the same period last year when they detained 5,108 people who illegally crossed the border.
The data for June or the first half of the year are not yet available and will not be available for some time, as the police are publishing them with a big delay during the “freedom” period. We can therefore expect them at the beginning of the second half of the month. And it is not only delays – the police have also heavily curtailed the reporting on illegal migration so that it is no longer even a shadow of what we have known in all the previous years.
However, the daily police reports already show that the number of illegal crossings of Slovenia’s southern border is increasing. Migrants have changed tactics in this time of “freedom”, as they were practically invited to Slovenia by Prime Minister Robert Golob before and after the elections last year. They have moved from the forests to the roads, with the largest number of migrants (two-thirds of the total) now being found in Posavje (in the area of the Novo mesto police station), followed by the Koper area. In June, however, this also started to change. According to police officers, illegal migrants have also started entering our country in the Bela krajina area along the Kolpa River and in the municipalities of Črnomelj and Metlika.
Almost all of them apply for asylum
Another worrying aspect of the large number of migrants processed is that the majority of those detained (more than 90 percent) express their intention to apply for international protection (asylum) to the police when they are detained. In five months, 14,705 (out of a total of 15,456) expressed such intent, compared to only 3,798 migrants last year. The intention to apply for international protection means that the police have to first record the necessary data about the arrested (or voluntarily surrendered) migrant and then provide a proper interpreter, as well as medical and nutritional care, after which the migrants are transported to the asylum centre in Ljubljana. This is a lot of work, requiring a large number of police officers, and at a high cost to all taxpayers.
They will continue to immigrate
While most migrants are expected to move on to other countries that they have chosen as their final destination, more and more are staying in Slovenia. Asylum centres and their units are bursting at the seams. As if this were not enough, the government of Robert Golob has now quietly and without the consent of the National Assembly (the whole of politics that is) agreed to the relocation or compulsory takeover of migrants across the European Union, at a recent meeting in Brussels. This means that the Golob coalition has uncritically agreed that Slovenia will take over the migrants who are now in other Member States. We probably do not need to specifically point out that the other countries will try to relocate the most problematic migrants first.
Europe continues to be shocked by the images of groups of young men arriving in the European Union from all sides. By land and by sea. Some of the images are downright horrifying. Those arriving are mainly men, some of them are menacing, and some of them are even armed, according to insiders. There has been an increase in violence in Western European countries recently, and the situation was particularly horrific in France at the weekend. Libraries were burnt down; entire residential neighbourhoods were set on fire, and so on. Janez Janša, the President of the Slovenian Democratic Party (Slovenska demokratska stranka – SDS), spoke out in light of what is going on. He is very critical of the fact that the government coalition, led by Robert Golob, supports the compulsory redistribution of migrants across the European Union. He also warns that the violence that is currently happening in other countries will come to us as well.
They are looking for accommodation across Slovenia
Meanwhile, the government is keeping quiet on the subject, as they are currently on holiday anyway. But the fact is that the Government Office for the Support and Integration of Migrants is already looking for new accommodation facilities for migrants. They confirmed to the Moja Dolenjska web portal that they have been visiting various municipalities across Slovenia, “in order to look for new accommodation capacities.” The mayor of Kočevje, Vladimir Prebilič, recently revealed that the government had sent a letter to all municipalities in south-eastern Slovenia (in the Kočevsko-Ribniška, Dolenjska and Bela krajina regions), inquiring about the possibility of setting up migrant centres in their area. The municipality of Kočevje then organised a meeting with the inhabitants of Kočevska Reka, at which they were presented with the exact location where such a centre would be located. Containers would be placed next to the existing building. The residents were promised additional money from the government for some of the projects. The residents resisted. Concerns were then also raised by the inhabitants of the village of Predgrad, near Stari trg ob Kolpi, about a migrant centre being built there. The village is territorially part of the municipality of Kočevje. When this became known, the Mayor of Kočevje informed the government that no action would be taken against the will of the people in the municipality and that the sites would not be made available to the government for the needs of migrants. However, some other municipalities, such as Črnomelj, Metlika and Novo mesto, told the Moja Dolenjska web portal that nothing was happening in their area regarding the migrant centres; representatives from Črnomelj and Metlika even assured the media outlet that they had not received any letter from the government, while Gregor Macedoni, the mayor of Novo mesto, did not explicitly comment on the matter, but stated that “there are currently no plans for such centres in the municipality.”
Why do they not enter the country legally, at the border crossings?
Most migrants who cross the border illegally declare their intention to apply for international protection (asylum) to police officers. In the first five months of this year, the migrants claimed to be the nationals of the following countries: Afghanistan (2,491), Morocco (2,121), Russia (1,470), Pakistan (1,336), Cuba (1,149), Bangladesh (1,139), India (794), Nepal (755), Turkey (589) and Syria (495). The remaining 2,366 are either nationals of other countries or have not declared their nationality. This year is characterised by a major structural change in nationalities. There has been a significant increase in the number of Afghans, Moroccans, Russians, Pakistanis, Cubans, Bangladeshis, Indians, Nepalis, Turks, and Syrians entering our country.
All of these countries, however, are considered to be war-free. These people could therefore enter Slovenia at border crossings. Why this is not the case remains a mystery to ordinary citizens.
Vida Kocjan
