Ljubljana - Police dealt with 4,495 illegal crossings of the border in the first seven months of 2021, some 40% fewer than in the same period last year, when there were 7,577. The most frequently processed illegal migrants were from Afghanistan (975), Pakistan (806) and Bangladesh (522).

Currently, the rise in the number of illegal border crossings is smaller than expected, with the Koper police remaining the most exposed.

In the area covered by the Maribor Police Department, an increase was noted, mainly due to those who try to avoid the anti-Covid measures or congestion by crossing the border outside official crossing points.

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

The highest number of illegal entries at internal EU borders has been recorded at the border with Hungary this year, also as a result of intentional routing of migrants through the country.

There has been a decline in the number of Pakistani and Afghanistani nationals illegally crossing the border, although they are still the most numerous among the processed illegal migrants in Slovenia.

There was also a decline in the number of people coming in from Iraq and Algeria, while the biggest decline was recorded in the number of Moroccan nationals (101 in 2021 compared to 1990 in 2020).

On the other hand, there was a slight increase in the numbers of migrants coming from Bangladesh, Croatia, Turkey, Iran, Kosovo, and other countries, unspecified in the police data.

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 this year, while increases were recorded in Maribor, Murska Sobota, Celje and Koper.

The total number of persons who were returned to the Slovenian police (89) and of those returned to foreign authorities (2,064) has also decreased quite significantly in 2021, compared to the same period last year (677 and 4,784, respectively).

The number of applications for international protection received by Slovenian authorities in the first seven months (1,843) is similar to the same period in 2020, when it stood at 1,938.