Around 1,000 additional police officers were dispatched to Slovenia's border with Croatia on Tuesday in a bid to prevent illegal border crossings. Officals said they have detected an increase of migrants on the Balkan route in the past weeks.
Two migrant-aid organizations are accusing authorities in northeastern Italy of illegally returning asylum seekers to Slovenia. They also claim that readmission procedures between Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia prevent people from asking for asylum in the EU.
Italy's northeastern province of Friuli Venezia Giulia has said that the Italian government will be drawing up urgent measures to counter the arrival of migrants via the Balkan route, while police say the situation is problematic in Trieste.
Authorities in the Italian region of Friuli Venezia Giulia are concerned about a new increase of irregular migrants in the area, coming from Slovenia through the Balkan route. In 12 hours between Monday and Tuesday, about 140 migrants were registered.
While migrant disembarkations continue in southern Italy, authorities are concerned over an increase in the arrival of foreigners using the Balkan route, passing through Slovenia to arrive in Friuli Venezia Giulia.
Slovenia will reinforce its border with Croatia and by putting up more fencing to stem the number of illegal crossings, the interior ministry said on Tuesday. Since 2015, Slovenia has erected about 196 kilometers of fencing along its 670-kilometer-long border with its eastern neighbour.
The experience of an Italian family that took six migrants into their home has inspired the EU-funded project Embracin. Their reception model will be replicated in six EU countries.
A group of Eritrean asylum seekers have held a protest in Slovenia against asylum request procedures, which the community sees as unfair. They also demonstrated against the rejection of five asylum claims filed by Eritreans.
A proposal to use trail cameras to detect migrants along Italy's border with Slovenia has created controversy.
The Slovenian government has presented a draft law to limit the activities of self-styled "village guards" created to control the border, many of whom do so as part of an anti-migrant trend.
Since July, Italian and Slovenian authorities have been patrolling the joint alpine border in an effort to stop migrants from crossing. InfoMigrants met with Slovenian police in the city of Koper, not far from the Italian city of Trieste, where dozens of migrants are arrested every week.
A small country of just two million inhabitants, Slovenia has only one center for asylum seekers. The center in Ljubljana can accommodate up to 200 people, but it is rarely full. Most migrants stay only a few days to rest before vanishing 'into thin air'.