"We returned them based on evidence we had that they came from Hungary, and the Hungarians accepted them without a problem," Maribor police official Boris Ramot said.

The handover took place at the Dolga vas border crossing in line with the aliens act and the corresponding agreement with Hungary.

The migrants did not resist the handover. "They said that they felt okay in Slovenia. Nor did they feel bad in Hungary, but they want to go to Germany," Ramot said.

The group was discovered on Saturday in the van of a 43-year-old Romanian on the motorway close to the Šentilj border crossing.

The police found evidence that they had been processed by Hungarian, Serbian, Macedonian and Greek authorities.

None of the migrants asked for asylum in Slovenia so they had been housed in the migrants processing centre in Postojna. The Iranians mostly comprised families, including a four-year old girl.

The handover follows a day after the Hungarian authorities declined to accept 14 Syrians who illegally crossed into Slovenia last week, on the ground that there was no evidence they came from Hungary.