STA, 18 July 2022 - Slovenian police handled 6,006 cases of migrants crossing into the country illegally in the first half of the year, an increase of 75% from the same period a year ago. Almost a quarter of the migrants intercepted were from Afghanistan.
Police statistics show nearly half of all cases were handled by the Koper Police Department with the Novo Mesto Department also reporting considerable increase in cases.
The number of migrants indicating their intention to apply for international protection status nearly quadrupled to 5,209, mainly due to a strong increase in applications submitted by Afghanistan nationals.
The police also handled 6,101 applications for temporary protection, almost all of which were by Ukrainian citizens.
Afghanistan was the biggest source of illegal migration to Slovenia as the number of migrants from there more than doubled year-on-year to 1,316.
Pakistani nationals followed as the second largest group (718) ahead of Indians. The number of the latter rose from just 18 in the first half of last year to 473 in the same period this year.
There has also been a substantial increase in migrants from Nepal, from 46 to 274 this year. After no illegal migrants from Cuba or Burundi were registered in the first six months of 2021, 257 and 227 cases from those countries, respectively, were handled this year.
Of the 3,748 applications for international status received, 3,356 were solved, of which 98 positively. 40 applications were rejected, procedure was halted for 1,767 of them and 1,451 were thrown out.
Foreign law enforcement authorities returned 240 migrants to Slovenian police in the first half of the year, which compares to 77 in the same period a year ago. Most (173) were returned through airport.
Slovenian police sent back 1,206 migrants in the period, the vast majority to Croatia (1,115). In the same period last year a total of 1,658 migrants were returned by Slovenia, of whom 1,595 to Croatia.
