STA, 9 May 2019 - A 79-year-old man working in his vineyard around the south-eastern town of Črnomelj on the border with Croatia was kidnapped on Wednesday by a group of migrants who entered Slovenia illegally, the police told the press in Ljubljana on Thursday.

A 25-year-old Morocco citizen and two 18-year-olds from Algeria were arrested by the Italian police in the town of Basovizza last evening and returned to Slovenia.

They are in detention on suspicion of kidnapping and theft, and will be brought before an investigating magistrate within 48 hours, said Tomaž Perošlja from the General Police Department.

Under Slovenia's penal code, kidnapping carries a prison sentence from six months to five years, or less if the kidnapper releases the victim of their own accord.

Peršolja explained the man had been tied up near the village of Mali Nerajec in the Bela Krajina region in early afternoon, put into his car's boot and driven several hours around Slovenia before being untied and released in a village near the town of Sežana on the south-western border with Italy.

The kidnappers took his documents before proceeding to Italy. Upon release, the man asked for help the nearby locals, who called the police and his family after 6pm.

The police have also established that the three foreign citizens were processed by Slovenian police before, according to Peršolja.

They entered the country illegally on 29 April, did not express an intention to ask for international protection in Slovenia and were returned to Croatia on 30 April.

The kidnapped man's daughter told the news portal siol.net yesterday her father, who was not injured, had been kidnapped by four migrants.

Pršolja explained police were still trying to establish all the details, saying it was possible the fourth kidnapper had left the car earlier.

The police, which have already beefed up control at the most sensitive border areas, are still searching for him.

The incident could further heat the debate on safety along the border due to a rise in illegal migrations, especially during the ongoing campaign for the EU elections.

Two civil groups from Bela Krajina and the municipality of Ilirska Bistrica, which have been warning about poor safety of local population, will hold a news conference at 2pm, also featuring the kidnapped man's daughter.

Meanwhile, the opposition Democrats (SDS) have already demanded a session of the National Security Council to discuss the situation on the southern border.

As party leader Janez Janša said on Twitter this morning, the government was not in control of the situation and did not it take it seriously.

STA, 6 May 2019 - The Novo Mesto, Koper and Ljubljana police have recorded more than 140 illegal crossings of the border the past weekend. Two foreigners were hiding in the chassis of a train engine and a Pakistani citizen wanted to smuggle ten persons into Slovenia in his car.

In the Novo Mesto area, 27 foreigners were apprehended illegally crossing the border with Croatia in the south-east. Police proceedings against the 16 Algerians, five Syrians, and the citizens of Iran, Iraq, Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Libya are still under way.

Another two foreigners were discovered at the Dobova border crossing during a border check of a train transporting grain from Serbia.

A Moroccan and a Libyan were hiding in the chassis of the engine. The pair have already been handed over to Croatian authorities.

The Ljubljana police have registered 48 migrants in the last 72 hours. The citizens of Turkey, Syria, Egypt, Eritrea, Sudan, Morocco, Afghanistan, Algeria and Iran were apprehended in the area of Kočevje, Ribnica and Ljubljana.

The Koper police department processed 64 people for illegally crossing the border from Friday until this morning, of whom 30 were from Pakistan, 11 from Algeria, 10 from Turkey, four from Albania and two each from Afghanistan, Iraq, Tunisia and Slovenia, and one from Kosovo.

So far, 15 persons have applied for international protection, eight have been returned to Croatian authorities, and 37 are yet to be returned to Croatia.

Three persons have been released after it was determined that they reside in the EU and one was transported to the Centre for Foreigners.

Two Italians and two Pakistanis, residents of Italy and Slovenia, respectively, are being processed for illegally crossing the border.

On Friday evening, a 40-year-old Pakistani citizen residing in Slovenia was caught transporting 10 persons in a car with Slovenian licence plates. All passengers have applied for asylum, while the driver was remanded in custody.

This morning a van was pulled over in the village of Podgorje near Koper in which an Italian driver and a Pakistani guide were smuggling 16 Pakistanis

STA, 29 April 2019 - Police apprehended more than 250 foreigners who entered Slovenia unlawfully and tried to bypass the border control during the weekend. The Novo Mesto police arrested two Serbian citizens transporting six Pakistani illegal migrants.

The two Serbians were driving a vehicle with Slovenian plates and were intercepted near Trebnje (SE). Both of them have been detained. Five of the transported Pakistanis were handed over to the Croatian authorities, while one has asked for international protection.

At Dobova, the major railway border crossing with Croatia, police officers found a Moroccan citizen who was hiding under the carriage of a freight train from Serbia.

On Sunday night, police apprehended seven Afghan illegal migrants stowed away under the carriage of a similar freight train. The foreigners were handed over to the Croatian authorities.

The Novo Mesto police apprehended 96 foreigners who crossed the border unlawfully over the weekend. Most of them were from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Algeria and are still being processed.

The Koper police apprehended 74 illegal migrants, with 16 of them having already asked for international protection. Some of them are still being processed, while 49 have already been sent back to Croatia. Four Austrian citizens were released after being processed. Most of the apprehended foreigners were from Afghanistan.

The Ljubljana police caught 88 foreigners who have illegally crossed the state border over the past weekend and additional 23 by Monday morning.

The police data shows that the number of illegal border crossings has significantly increased this year - by almost 150% in the first three months.

STA, 27 April 2019 - Some 400 locals living along the border near the Jelšane border crossing with Croatia staged a rally on Saturday demanding better border protection and rejecting the idea of their community hosting a processing centre for migrants.

Those living in border areas are faced with illegal migrations on a daily basis, and migrations involve pollution of the environment, break-ins and damage to property, said Ivan Cegnar, who heads a local civil initiative that has spearheaded the protests.

"What's particularly worrying is the fear, being unable to freely move in our back yards," said Cegnar, the head of the local government council in Jelšane.

He said the locals demanded that the state protect the Schengen border in line with the law and commitments Slovenia made when it joined the Schengen zone.

Emil Rojc, the mayor of Ilirska Bistrica, said that migrations had led to a deterioration in the quality of living for the locals.

They demand that police beef up security and reject what Rojc said were "excuses" by the police that there are not enough officers to protect the border. He said Slovenia could seek assistance from the EU border agency Frontex.

If needed the army should be called up as well, said Rojc, who hails from the ranks of the Social Democrats (SD) and has raised eyebrows in his party's ranks with his hard stance on migrations.

The protest is the apex of months of mounting opposition in Ilirska Bistrica area, where many migrants chose to cross the border.

In the first three months of this year police in the western Koper District, which includes Ilirska Bistrica, registered 388 illegal border crossings, up from 266 in the same period in 2018.

The area is not the main entry point for migrants, as the vast majority cross further east covered by the Ljubljana and Novo Mesto police.

In the entire country they registered 1,639 attempts at illegal border crossing, an increase of almost 150% on the year before.

But what has further aggravated local woes around Jelšane are contingency plans that involve using buildings near the Jelšane border crossing for a processing centre for migrants in the event of a surge in migrant numbers.

The government has tried to assuage fears by emphasising that this would be a measure of last resort, but it has refused to specify at what point it may be activated.

The municipal council has even tried to stage a referendum on the registration centre, but their attempt has been thwarted by courts with the argument that such issues cannot be subject to referenda. The motion has been put to the Supreme Court.

While driven by local concerns, the protest attracted the interest of rightist parties that have made opposition to migrations a core part of their agendas.

Among the participants were senior Democrat (SDS) MP Branko Grims, the president of the far-right Homeland League (DOM) Bernard Brščič and representatives of the extremist Identitarian movement, which had in previous days urged people to attend the protest.

SDS leader Janez Janša wrote on Twitter that the protest was "the only genuine manifestation on Resistance Day," in that it was targeted "against potential conquerors and their helpers."

Meanwhile, the SD said they did not support the protest, adding in reference to the mayor coming from their ranks that "the party's competent bodies will evaluate the conduct of individual members."

STA, 8 April 2019 - Slovenian Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar said on Monday there were no reasons for Austria to extend control on the borders with Slovenia and Hungary, as announced by his Austrian counterpart Herbert Kickl in a letter to the European Commission.

"This measure is unwarranted and disproportionate and there is no reason for it," Poklukar said, adding that Slovenia was protecting the Shengen border well and effectively.

Kickl justifies the extension with the assessment that the number of illegal migrants was still too high, and warns about a "latent threat of terrorism" due to the possibility of foreign fighters returning from Syria and Iraq.

Slovenia has been opposing Austria's continued checks on the border between the countries, arguing that the number of illegal migrants returned from Austria to Slovenia is very small.

The Slovenian Interior Ministry said today that the Slovenian authorities had accepted only 15 persons from the Austrian authorities in the first three months of the year.

"Protecting the Schengen border is our absolute priority," said Poklukar, noting that he had not been notified by the Austrian counterpart about the intention to extend checks on the border with Slovenia.

The minister nevertheless noted that "migrations are on the increase, which is why we are ready to cooperate with all countries in the Western Balkans as well as other countries, including Austria."

Since 2015, checks on internal Schengen borders are also being carried out by Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden and Norway.

STA, 3 April 2019 - The Administrative Court has declared unlawful the decision of the Ilirska Bistrica city council to hold a referendum on a centre for the acceptance and registration of migrants in the south-western town. The locals say they will nevertheless continue with activities against the government's plans to set up such a centre there.

The ruling of the court was announced for the STA on Wednesday by Ilirska Bistrica Mayor Emil Rojc, who added that the objective of the municipality and most of the residents remained that the centre was not established there.

The city council voted to hold a consultative referendum on the centre, planned to be set up at the Jelšane border crossing with Croatia, at the beginning of March in what was a second vote on the issue.

After the vote to hold a referendum on 14 April, Rojc said he would ask the court to rule on its legality after legal opinions suggested that under the Slovenian law, a municipality cannot hold a referendum on migration policy.

The mayor explained at the time that the municipality had obtained three opinions, from two law firms and the government's local government service, which all say a municipality cannot hold such a referendum.

Rojc told the STA today that the municipality had received the ruling of the Administrative Court last week, in which it said that the decision to hold the referendum was unlawful, which meant that it could not be held.

The mayor said that the locals had other options available but would not go into details, adding that the goal that the centre is not set up in the municipality had been reached for the time being.

"The fact is that the state wanted to start the construction and that it has not done it so far," he added.

The planned centre near the village of Ješane, which has some 250 residents, is to feature ten containers and two tents with the total capacity of between 600 and 1,000 beds.

Rojc, a member of the coalition Social Democrats (SD) said that the activities against the centre by a local civil initiative continued, adding that while the municipality had nothing to do with them, he personally supported them.

Signatures are being signed for a petition against the centre, and a protest is planned to be held on 27 April, he added.

STA, 25 March 2019 - The Koper and Novo Mesto police caught 51 foreigners illegally crossing the border the past weekend. Seven migrants requested international protection.

According to the Koper police department, 23 foreigners were caught crossing the border from Croatia in the western region from Friday morning until today.

Two of them were Croatians, while the rest were citizens of Kosovo (five), Pakistan (four), Algeria (three), Somalia (three), and Afghanistan, and Iraq and Iran (two each).

The Koper police also apprehended a Slovenian citizen who transported four foreigners who had illegally crossed the border.

Seven people were already returned to Croatia and just as many are expected to be handed over today. Seven migrants requested international protection.

The Novo Mesto police, meanwhile, found an Algerian citizen hiding in the undercarriage of a train, trying to avoid border control. The man was handed over to Croatian authorities.

In the Novo Mesto area, a total of 27 foreigners were apprehended, with six of them coming from Afghanistan, just as many from Algeria and Morocco, four from Yemen, two from Iraq and just as many from Egypt, and one from Syria.

A total of 611 illegal crossings of the border were recorded in Slovenia in January and February, which is a 35% increase compared to the same period last year. Most of the foreigners came from Algeria and Morocco.

All our stories on illegal migration in Slovenia are here

STA, 18 March 2019 - Police apprehended 102 foreigners who entered Slovenia from Croatia unlawfully at the weekend. Five of them have already asked for international protection, with the rest of them are still being processed. At the same time, two vehicles transporting illegal migrants were intercepted.

Metlika police apprehended 10 Afghani citizens and one Iranian crossing into Slovenia illegally in the night to Saturday in the south-east of the country.

The group was brought to the border by a 22-year-old Croatian driver from Velika Kladuša, one of the Bosnian towns closest to Slovenia.

The driver was handled by Croatian police.

Another group in the south-east was apprehended around the town of Semič on Saturday morning when a car with Italian licence places, driven by two Pakistani citizens, was stopped carrying three Indians, three Pakistani citizens and one citizen of Myanmar.

The drivers had tried to take the group to Italy, where the two reside legally. Slovenian police seized their car and filed a criminal complaint against them.

A total of 57 citizens, the majority from Pakistan (27) and Iran (12), were also caught by Novo Mesto police between Friday and Monday.

The Ljubljana Police Department apprehended twelve illegal migrants over the past 24 hours; three Algerians and a Tunisian citizen asked for asylum, while processing is still ongoing for the others.

The Koper Police Department, which covers south-western Slovenia, apprehended 15 illegal migrants from Friday to Monday morning.

One Afghani citizen asked for international protection, and the rest are being still processed.

Illegal migrations slowed down during the winter months, with 325 crossings registered in January and 334 in December compared to 1,000-plus in the summer months, according to police data.

In March last year, a total of 206 illegal crossings of the border were recorded, a figure that is likely to be exceeded this year.

All our stories on immigration can be found here

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

--------------------------------------

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

--------------------------------------

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

---------------------------------------------------------------

Italy                351                     68

Austria               37                     22

Croatia               14                  4,653

Hungary               19                      5

airports             178                     36

---------------------------------------------------------------

total                599                  4,784

Source: Police

STA, 17 December 2018 - Prime Minister Marjan Šarec said during questions time in parliament on Monday that record keeping on foreigners in the country should be more detailed, so that foreigners will not be just numbers and that any abuse of the welfare system would be prevented.

Šarec was responding to a question by MP Zmago Jelinčič of the opposition National Party (SNS), who wanted to know how many foreigners are currently in the country, how many of them have working permits, where do they work and how many relatives each foreigner with a working permit has brought to the country.

Jelinčič said that by agreeing with the UN Global Compact for Migration Slovenia had opened the door wide to even more illegal migrants.

He said that one channel of illegal migration was Albanians coming to the country and the other were illegal migrants arriving through student or working visas, and shell companies.

Related: 1 in 8 residents of Slovenia is an immigrant

Data show that foreigners from Turkey, Pakistan and India are founding or buying companies with no employees in Slovenia, Jelinčič said.

The illegal migrants who come to the country either go further west or get a job, an address and request for social transfers, which they receive.

Jelinčič asked Šarec if he was aware of such abuses of the system and how the government plans to act against "this type of crime and illegal migration."

The prime minister presented official statistics, saying that 172,073 foreigners had a residence permit in Slovenia on 30 November, of whom 27,666 people were from the European Economic Area and Switzerland, and 14,407 from third countries.

According to the latest figures by the Employment Service, a total of 39,260 working permits have been issued this year.

The prime minister explained that not all citizens of third countries who live in Slovenia need an additional permit to get a job, start a business or work in Slovenia in addition to the work and residence permit.

He said that it was difficult to check whether a person actually lives at their address and that changes were absolutely needed here.

Related: The places where foreigners live in Slovenia and where they come from

"More will need to be done to keep good and accurate records, so that people will not be just numbers, which allows for abuses of the system, especially with welfare benefits," Šarec said.

On 30 November, the number of valid temporary residence permits due to family reunification stood at 11,692, Šarec said, adding that no records were kept on the family relations of the foreigners who receive temporary residence permits due to family reunification.

Šarec said that 18,600 foreigners received child benefits this year, which is 6.1% of all rightful claimants.

Jelinčič said that the UN spoke of 244,800 migrants in the country and the OECD of 340,000 people who were not born in Slovenia, so he proposed a parliamentary discussion on the issue. The National Assembly will decide on this on Wednesday.