Slovenian prime minister Janez Jansa has said that not only his own country but also the EU as a whole will not be opening humanitarian corridors for Afghan refugees. His comments sparked polemics among the Italian Democratic Party and left wing in general.
Italy and Slovenia have reached an understanding to continue joint patrols at their border, according to the Trieste police commissioner. League politicians praised these plans.
Police and border forces from North Macedonia and Slovenia conducted two operations on Friday in which they found a total of 82 migrants hidden in various vehicles.
Italian interior minister Luciana Lamorgese and her Slovenian counterpart Aleš Hojs on Friday decided to resume joint police patrols within the next month along the Slovenian-Italian border to curb migration flows to Western Europe along the Balkan route.
Italian police have said that in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, on the border with Slovenia, some 75% of those that have gone missing are under age 18 compared with a national average of 50%. The region is a transit area for the "Balkan route" for migrants from the Middle East towards countries in northern Europe.
Authorities in the Friuli Venezia Giulia region in northeast Italy along the border with Slovenia report that from January 1 to May 10, the territory had seen a 20% increase in migrants entering compared with the same period of 2020.
Twenty-one police officers from Estonia, Lithuania and Poland are in Slovenia where they will help authorities strengthen checks at the border with Croatia as part of the fight against undocumented migration.
A Slovenian woman was arrested by Italian police in border city of Trieste this week. She allegedly drove five immigrants from Slovenia to Italy in exchange for 1,500 euros.
The number of individuals seeking asylum in Austria has risen by roughly 10% in 2020. During the same period, the overall number of people seeking protection in the EU dropped by 31%.
In an apparent case of human smuggling, Slovenian police have discovered 13 migrants hidden in a cargo truck. Migrants are regularly discovered crammed into trucks and cars heading through the Balkans en route to western Europe.
Local volunteer Zlatan Kovacevic says that the situation in Bosnia is slowly going from bad to worse, as helpers begin to encounter corpses and growing violence against migrants. Children are particularly at risk, according to Save the Children.
Two Italian citizens have been sentenced to more than two years in prison on migrant trafficking charges. Police had found six migrants hidden in their car at the border between Croatia and Slovenia in September.