Slovenia is seeing a rapid increase in irregular entries on its territory, with numbers from January to July increasing by more than 150% compared to the same period last year.
Of the 26,871 migrants who crossed the border in an irregular situation in the first seven months of this year, Afghans continued to top the list, rising from 1,592 to 5,385 compared to 2022, the latest police statistics show.
At the same time, the number of irregular Moroccans entering Slovenia in that period shot up from 57 to 3,847, with Pakistani citizens increasing from 965 to 2,581 and migrants from Bangladesh rising from 1,006 to 2,396.
Russians also continued to flee their country, with 2,174 nationals recorded compared to just seven in the same period last year.
On the other hand, Burundi nationals disappeared from the statistics after more than 5,000 had entered Slovenia in 2022 due to a loophole that allowed them to travel visa-free to Serbia.
Another striking figure is a drop in the number of foreign nationals who returned to other countries in line with international agreements, from 1,593 to 191.
The number of returns to Croatia, which rights groups have been accusing of violent pushbacks, plummeted from 1,489 to 140 despite the tripling of the number of recorded cases of irregular migrants that entered from Slovenia’s southern neighbour.
Croatia remained the main entry point for irregular migrants, accounting for 25,431 of the intercepted cases compared to 8,330 in the same period last year.
(Sebastijan R. Maček | sta.si)
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