STA, 23 January 2019- Slovenian police officers detected a total of 9,149 illegal crossings of the state border last year, which is almost a five-fold increase compared to the year before (1,934). The biggest increase was recorded with the citizens of Pakistan, the police and the Interior Ministry have announced on their websites.
In addition to Pakistanis, the biggest number of persons who were caught crossing the national border illegally were from Afghanistan and Algeria.
As it had been expected, the number of illegal crossings of the border increased significantly in April and May, mostly because of the more favourable weather and a new route opening up across Bosnia-Herzegovina.
The police have noted for the STA that the number of illegal crossings of the border did not mean that the same number of different persons had committed the act.
It is possible that one person gets caught crossing the border illegally more than one time, the police said, adding that the Interior Ministry had no information about how many persons had actually crossed the border illegally in 2018.
The number of persons returned to Slovenia by foreign authorities has been increasing lately, in particular on the border with Italy. A majority of them are foreigners who leave asylum seeker centres and try to reach their destination countries.
A majority of foreigners who cross the border illegally within the Schengen system still come from Italy, but their number has been decreasing. The number of entries from Austria has meanwhile been increasing.
The Interior Ministry has granted international protection to 102 asylum seekers last year. At the moment, there are a total of 274 asylum seekers in Slovenia, while there are 640 persons who have been granted international protection.
Number of illegal crossings of the border in 2018 by citizenship
citizenship number of crossings
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Pakistan 2,711
Afghanistan 1,066
Algeria 913
Iran 797
Syria 708
Iraq 554
Morocco 397
Turkey 260
Bangladesh 221
India 201
Kosovo 135
other 1,186
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total 9,149
Source: Police
Number of persons returned to the Slovenian authorities
and to foreign authorities in 2018
country returned to returned to
Slovenian authorities foreign authorities
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Italy 351 68
Austria 37 22
Croatia 14 4,653
Hungary 19 5
airports 178 36
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total 599 4,784
Source: Police
