STA, 25 January 2022 - Slovenia's Employment Service has recorded a significant rise in applications for the employment of foreigners last year, announcing on Tuesday that it had received 52,281 work permit applications in 2021, the most since the current system was put in place in 2015.

Slovenia has thus exceeded the previous record of 48,127 work permit applications received in 2019, when employment of foreigners in Slovenia was at its highest in recent years.

Of the 52,281 applications received in 2021, 46,264 were approved and 6,017 were denied.

The increased interest of foreigners in working in Slovenia is also a consequence of structural imbalances in the labour market, with employer demand far outstripping supply.

Foreigners in Slovenia are mostly employed in activities characterised by work in the field and under difficult conditions - construction, transport, manufacturing, catering and hospitality, and agriculture.

The Employment Service said that despite receiving a record number of applications, "the average processing times for applications are within the legal limits and are even getting shorter".

They also pointed out that most potential issues arise due to a lack of procedural knowledge by the applicants, inadequate or incomplete documentation, congestions at certain administrative units, and procedures to ensure that permits and workers are not abused by the employers.

The Employment Service added that it will organise special meetings to inform employers about the procedures as soon as possible, and that it will adjust its work towards taking on more staff and optimising tasks related to processing work permits for foreigners.

STA, 14 December 2021 - Immigration to Slovenia is accelerating and as of 1 January this year one in seven residents, or 13.9% of the entire population, were born abroad. This compares to 8.5% ten years ago, show Statistics Office data.

Almost two-thirds of foreign-born residents immigrated after Slovenia's independence and one in five arrived between 2018 and 2020. In 2020 a record 23,383 immigrants were recorded.

Former Yugoslav republics are by far the biggest source of immigration. Of the more than 292,000 foreign-born residents, 133,000 came from Bosnia-Herzegovina, 43,000 from Croatia and 30,000 from Serbia.

But a significant share also come from non-Balkan countries, most notably from Germany (7,600), Italy (4,600) and Russia (4,000), but also China (1,200) and the United States (900).

Some 46% of foreign-born residents have Slovenian citizenship, some of whom have had Slovenian citizenship since birth because they were born to Slovenian parents.

The Statistics Office released the data set to mark International Migrants Day.

More on this data

STA, 5 October 2021 - Interior Minister Aleš Hojs called for better control over who enters the EU as he took part in a meeting of the home affairs ministers of the Visegrad Group plus Austria and Slovenia in Budapest on Tuesday. He said securing EU borders should remain top priority.

The meeting, featuring officials from the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, as well as Austria and Slovenia, focused on current challenges in migration and management of EU borders.

"Protecting the EU's external borders must remain our absolute priority, to tackle security risks and prevent potential migration pressures. We must not allow a repeat of the 2015 scenario so we must refrain from statements that could represent a pull factor," Hojs said as quoted in a press release from his ministry.

He urged a united approach to external dimensions of migration. "The European Commission must, in cooperation with us, the member states, establish close cooperation with third countries. This cooperation should be based on the principle of mutual benefit."

As a representative of the EU presiding country, Hojs presented the contents of the next session of the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council, in particular further debate on the new pact on migration and asylum.

He argued that the EURODAC regulation, which deals with the EU's asylum and migrant fingerprint database, should be debated as a matter of priority in order to implement interoperability as soon as possible and to improve migration and asylum management, in particular in the field of returning of migrants.

The Hungarian MTI agency reported Hungarian Foreign Minister Sandor Pinter said the ministers were in complete agreement that the EU's external borders needed to be protected. He added that the challenge of migration as a result of the situation in Afghanistan would apply to all European countries in the future.

According to the Interior Ministry, Hojs thanked his counterparts for a constructive approach in adopting in a joint statement on the situation Afghanistan at the August meeting of home affairs ministers in Brussels, adding that it should be followed up by implementation.

The statement said the EU was determined to prevent uncontrolled influx of migrants from Afghanistan and that any encouragement to illegal migration should be avoided. The ministers also supported enhancing support to third countries hosting large numbers of migrants and refugees. They committed for the EU and member states to do everything to prevent the situation in Afghanistan to lead to new security threats to EU citizens.

STA, 17 July 2021 - Slovenia recorded what is the highest positive net migration since 2008 last year as almost 18,400 people more moved in than out. The Statistics Office says part of the reason for the increase is administrative changes in the population register.

Last year 36,110 people moved into Slovenia and 17,745 moved out, which marks an increase of 15% and 17%, respectively, compared with the year before.

The number of Slovenian citizens moving their permanent residence to Slovenia trebled to 11,360, which was due to cessation of temporary residence abroad under new provisions of the residence registration act.

Under those provisions, temporary address abroad ceased to 22,248 individuals ex officio as of 13 August 2020. Under the existing statistical methodology, 18,500 of those individuals would be included in the population and immigration count in 2020.

However, using different additional data sources, especially those that define the person's activity status from which it is possible to assume the person's actual residence in Slovenia, the statisticians eventually included fewer than 7,500 of those people in the final population count (among them 97% Slovenian citizens and 3% foreigners).

The Statistics Office says the majority of those residents most likely immigrated to Slovenia years or even decades ago, but failed to register their return at the administrative unit for some reason.

Net migration of foreign nationals was positive for the 22nd year in a row. Last year, 12,816 more foreigners moved into Slovenia than out.

Most of the Slovenian citizens that moved to Slovenia had previously resided in Germany or Austria (29% and 18% respectively), followed by Italy, Croatia and Switzerland.

Nearly half of all foreign immigrants in 2020 (46%) came from Bosnia-Herzegovina, followed by those from Kosovo, Serbia, North Macedonia and Croatia.

Last year, 5,811 Slovenian citizens moved out, 12% fewer than in 2019. A quarter (24%) left for Austria with another fifth (19%) moving to Germany.

The Statistics Office also recorded 127,052 internal migrants changing their place of residence within the country a total of 140,223 times last year, an increase of 42% compared with 2019.

This was as 12,461 residents changed their place of residence more than once.

6% of Slovenian population changed their place of residence at least once; one out of nine foreign citizens moved at least once, but only one in twenty Slovenian citizens.

Many of the internal migrations were linked to Covid-19 containment measures as many changed their official residence as movement between municipalities was banned in March and October.

The Statistics Office also recorded 1,725 people acquiring Slovenian citizenship last year as 43 lost it.

You can explore this data here

STA, 14 July 2021 - Police dealt with 3,343 illegal border crossings in the first half of the year, almost a third fewer than in the same period last year, when there were 5,127. The most frequently processed illegal migrants were from Afghanistan (644) and Pakistan (633).

As noted by the police, there has been a sharp decline in the number of Pakistani and particularly Moroccan nationals, as the number of illegal migrants continues to be affected by the limited mobility due to the containment of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lately there has been a marked increase in the number of migrants from Bangladesh, as there were 442 in the first six months of 2021 and only 173 in the same period last year. There has also been a slight increase in the number of migrants coming from Kosovo, Turkey and Iran.

The most dramatic decrease was seen in the numbers of migrants from Morocco, as their number dropped from 1,327 in the first half of last year to just 70 this year. The number of migrants arriving from Pakistan has also dropped, from 1,276 in the January-June period last year to 633 in the same period this year.

The highest number of illegal entries at internal EU borders happened at the border with Hungary this year, which shows that problems at this border seem to be increasing. The most exposed border in this respect is still the border with Croatia.

According to the data on illegal crossings of the border by individual police departments, far fewer migrants were processed in the areas covered by the police departments of Ljubljana and Novo Mesto, while increases were recorded in Maribor, Murska Sobota, Celje and Koper.

The total number of persons who were returned to the Slovenian police (77) and of those returned to foreign authorities (1,636) has also decreased slightly in 2021, compared to the same period last year (413 and 3,157, respectively).

The number of illegal migrants who declare their intention to apply for international protection has decreased, except in the case of Pakistani nationals. However, migrants still mostly resume their journey after reaching Slovenia, heading towards their destination countries.

The total number of applications for international protection received by Slovenian authorities in the first six months of 2021 is quite similar to the same period in 2020, standing at 1,270 and 1,467 respectively.

STA, 31 October 2020 - Slovenia had a population of 2,100,126 as of 1 July, the first time that the official figure has exceeded 2.1 million, show the latest statistics. The steady increase in the population has been driven by immigration.

The number of Slovenian citizens has been decreasing for a decade and in the first half of this year it dropped by 1,900 (0.1%) from the start of the year to 1,937,560.

The number of foreign citizens rose by 6,200 (4%) to 162,536 and they now account for 7.7% of the country's population.

There were 51.1% of women in the entire population, a share that has been slowly dropping for many years since the majority of immigrants are men; among foreign citizens residing here, only 33.6% are women.

Related: Foreign Nationals in Slovenia, by Country, Region & Continent

STA, 21 September 2020 - Foreign Minister Anže Logar, who attended a session of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on Monday, told reporters after the session that the EU's new migration pact was eagerly anticipated and that Slovenia would continue to oppose mandatory distribution of migrants, which the country made clear in June.

"We are anxious to see the proposed package, but it is difficult to comment on individual solutions before it is unveiled. We know roughly which way the solutions will go, but this is a very complex matter and the changes are very comprehensive, so I do not dare to comment any further at this point," Logar said after the ministerial, responding to a journalist question about whether Slovenia was happy with the planed solutions.

Seven EU members, including Slovenia, addressed a letter to the European Commission in June, expressing their resolute opposition to compulsory redistribution of migrants among EU member states. The letter was signed by Slovenia, all four Visegrad countries - Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as Estonia and Latvia.

Logar said today the letter made Slovenia's views very clear. "I think the arguments that Slovenia will use in this debate will go along those lines in the future as well," he said.

Asked whether Slovenia would support the new pact, he said that it was impossible to say exactly which way the debate would go at this point.

The new migration pact that the Commission will unveil on Wednesday is expected to be based on a mechanism of obligatory solidarity, which is to include transferring migrants in close connection with returning illegal migrants.

The new approach is said to be more flexible than the solutions which have been on the table so far and which member states failed to find common ground on.

The initiator of the new pact, European Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson, has said that all 27 members states are ready to make concessions.

Logar agrees that a compromise will be found but he stresses it will be within the frameworks of what countries find acceptable.

The Slovenian foreign minister noted this package would be discussed during the German-Portuguese-Slovenian presidency. If no agreement is reached during Portugal's stint, Slovenia will lead the debate, so Logar discussed the matter today with his German counterpart, and the French foreign minister in Paris on Sunday.

Asked about the upcoming report on the rule of law in EU countries, which the Commission is to release on 30 September, Logar said Slovenia was looking forward to the debate on the rule of law and would take active part in it, so that the bloc would have a credible, transparent and fair overview of the situation.

The report will open a dialogue and a quest for a model that would offer an overview of the situation in EU countries in the future as well, Logar said in an on-line press conference.

He added the EU's drawing up the report was a smart way of overcoming the impasse following alleged violations of the rule of law in Poland and Hungary.

Logar also held courtesy meetings with Executive Vice President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans and European Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevičius. He presented them Slovenia's priorities for the upcoming EU presidency from green technologies to water diplomacy.

STA, 21 September 2020 - Prime Minister Janez Janša announced more oversight over the system of social transfers as he responded to an MP question from Zmago Jelinčil from the opposition National Party (SNS) on Monday about the status of immigrants from third countries and their social transfers. Janša said the coalition agreement envisaged a reform of social transfers.

Janša noted that in some towns, more than a hundred persons are registered at a single address, so the relevant ministry should investigate this.

In some cases, hundreds of people are registered at a property of a hundred or two hundred square metres, he said, adding that people were being exploited, having to pay a lot of money to the real estate owners to be registered there.

There are no such irregularities in most towns, but in some there are, and Maribor stands out, he said.

Janša said inspectors should not have a hard time investigating the matter, starting by comparing data.

Many of the loopholes in the current legislation will be fixed with changes to the foreigners act, the PM said.

Jelinčič proposed the National Assembly debate the matter, which MPs will decide on Thursday.

STA, 18 September 2020 - The police processed some 10,220 illegal crossings of Slovenia's borders until the end of August, up 3.3% compared to the same period in 2019. In summer, the figure was on the rise, in August alone the police handled more than 2,600 cases of illegal migrations, mostly involving citizens from Pakistan, Morocco and Afghanistan.

In the first two months of 2020, the number of illegal crossings of the border was up on the same period in 2019, followed by a lull in illegal migrations caused by anti-corona restrictions. In May, the figure increased to roughly 900 and in summer months it shot up, police data show.

In June, police processed some 1,800 foreigners who had crossed the border illegally, some 2,430 in July and 2,670 in August, and the upward trend is expected to continue in the coming months.

A total of 2,920 asylum seekers were recorded in Slovenia in the first eight months of 2020, most of them were from Morocco. The figure dropped by 13% compared to the same period last year. The police believes the decrease is mostly a result of a drop in the number of Algerian citizens stemming from new migration routes.

The asylum seekers mostly continue on their way heading towards their final destinations after being accommodated at reception facilities in Slovenia, said the police.

According to the Interior Ministry data, 500 requests for international protection were filed in August, mostly by citizens of Morocco and Pakistan. A total of 475 requests were processed, ten were granted protection and 430 cases were stayed.

The latest relevant data show that in the first seven moths of this year, 72 persons were given the asylum status and 85 in the entire 2019. Processed cases totalled 1,548 until the end of July and 3,838 in 2019.

The STA is releasing charts showing relevant statistics regarding the numbers of illegal crossings and asylum seekers or those already granted international protection.

Number of illegal crossings of the border in the first eight months of 2020 and 2019 according to citizenship

Nationality           Number of crossings
                        2020       2019
----------------------------------------
Pakistan                2813       2360
Morocco                 2205        774
Afghanistan             1821       1071
Bangladesh               776        685
Algeria                  577       1440
Croatia                  403        217
Iraq                     332        562
Egypt                    200        161
Syria                    171        469
Iran                     163        504
other                    762       1653
----------------------------------------
total                 10,223       9896

Number of persons handed over to Slovenia's police and handed over by Slovenian authorities in the first eight months of 2020 and 2019

                Handed over to                Handed over to
               Slovenian police             foreign authorities

country            2019     2020              2019     2020
----------------------------------------------------------------
Italy              207      682                58       19
Austria             62       98                 9        6
Croatia             19       18              6457     6781
Hungary              3        6                 0        8
airport            177       86                20        9
----------------------------------------------------------------
total              468      890              6544     6823

Source: Police, Interior Ministry, Office for the Support and Integration of Migrants

STA, 25 August 2020 - A migrants’ rights advocacy group staged a rally in front of the Centre for Aliens in Postojna (Center za tujce) on Tuesday, claiming that conditions at the centre were reminiscent of a concentration camp and that the rights of foreigners kept there were being violated. The police has rejected the accusations.

The group, called Taskforce for Asylum, spoke on behalf of what were around 50 protestors, saying that grave human rights violations were occurring at the centre.

"You can find yourself here if a you are a foreigner and did not bring your residence documents in order in time, and you can stay locked up by up to a year, often without any contact to the outside world or the chance of an appeal," the group said.

In prison people at least know why they are locked up, can get a lawyer and know when they will be released, while in Postojna they are left at the mercy of a single inspector. Suicide attempts are an everyday affair, the Taskforce for Asylum said.

The group claims that "this disgraceful camp" was further expanded in recent months, with the state starting to send asylum seekers there and returning them to Croatian police from there.

It said one facility was a large warehouse with iron bars that now houses asylum seekers, who are left without basic necessities and kept waiting for a decision for weeks and months.

The foreigners handled this way are resisting and are also trying to get the attention of the public with hunger strikes, the Taskforce for Asylum said.

The protesters demanded today that "this concentration camp" be closed immediately and that the refoulement of migrants to Croatia stop.

The police rejected all the accusations, saying all procedures were conducted in line with national and European legislation and international conventions.

According to the police, it is not true that foreigners were sent to the centre without formal decisions. If there are reservations for sending back an individual, this is taken into consideration and the procedure is halted.

Legal protection is provided for all cases, there is also access to a doctor and psychosocial support, the police told the STA.

It also rejected claims of a hunger strike being under way. The foreigners expressed their discontent in different ways, including by occasionally declining food. Thus there was a situation a few days ago where one of the departments rejected dinner in protest over movement restrictions, the police added.

While also rejecting claims food was being supplied through window bars, the police dismissed accusations regarding overcrowded conditions.

There are presently 93 foreigners at the centre, which has capacity for 180. 68 of those currently there are subject to international protection procedures, while 25 are in the process of being returned.