Italian and Slovenian police say they have foiled an international criminal organization that helped migrants travel from a center for asylum seekers in Ljubljana to European countries -- mainly Italy, France and Germany. Alleged members of the association included people in charge of security at the hosting facility, investigative sources said on November 20.
The governor of the northeast Italian region that borders Slovenia has said that "patrols of the Italian-Slovenian border, which began some years ago, are now very scarce."
Italian police on Wednesday discovered four migrants hidden in the back of a lorry that was travelling from Slovenia to Lombardy in northern Italy. The day before a smuggler and six migrants were stopped in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region.
Listen to DW's World in Progress episode featuring the following topics: Trieste refugees: With winter approaching, many irregular migrants remain stuck on the Italy/Slovenia border -- Lebanon: More migrants attempt to cross the Mediterranean to Cyprus -- Interview: Why migrants less welcome in the EU -- Armenian Diaspora concerned about Nagorno-Karabakch conflict
Law enforcement in Italy on Monday tracked down 50 migrants in Udine and 76 in Trieste, including families and minors. The numbers show that migrants continue to arrive in Italy through the Balkan Route.
In several operations over the weekend Slovenian security forces stopped 200 migrants who had crossed the border from Croatia in an undocumented manner.
Italian authorities have deployed an additional 50 soldiers in the northeastern province of Udine to patrol the border with Slovenia and control the irregular entry of migrants from the Balkan route.
There has been an increase in migrant arrivals in Italy by land through the Balkan Route, according to Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese. She announced that controls in the border region of Friuli Venezia Giulia would be increased to combat clandestine migration.
The documentary film "No Borders. Stream of Conscience" by Italian director Mauto Caputo tells the story of migrants on the Balkan Route. Caputo spent a year and a half filming in the Karst Plateau region, along the border between Italy and Slovenia. He recently spoke to ANSA about the experience.
The authorities of Italy's Friuli Venezia Giulia region say that moe than 100 migrants were tracked down by border police between Sunday and Tuesday in the Trieste region, near the Slovenian border. Meanwhile, the local governor once again criticized the Rome government.
Seven human traffickers arrested as migrant numbers increase along the Balkan Route and police step up controls.
Austria has begun testing drones on its borders to Hungary and Slovenia. Equipped with live-tracking and heat-sensing cameras, the drones will be used to detect the movements of smugglers and irregular migrants.