STA, 2 June 2020 - More than 1,000 additional police officers were dispatched to Slovenia's border with Croatia on Tuesday to tight border control until Friday, as the police say an increase in migrants on the Balkan route has been detected.
The aim of the mission, ordered by acting Police Commissioner Anton Travner, is to show migrants and smugglers that an attempt to enter Slovenia does not pay off, Deputy Police Commissioner Jože Senica said on Tuesday.
Police are using all technical measures available, including surveillance drones, thermal cameras, motion-sensor cameras and helicopters.
Police officers are assisted by the military, Senica said in a statement on Tuesday, speaking at one of the points where the control has been beefed up in the area of Kočevje, south.
Apart from regular patrols, mounted police officers, the canine unit, a specialised border control unit and the special weapons team have been sent to the border, said Senica, adding that additional auxiliary police had also been mobilised.
Moreover, a special debrief police team has been set up. Its members, specially trained officers, will try to gain information from migrants about the routes they are taking and smugglers organising the border crossings.
Senica said that migrants are becoming increasingly cautious, travelling through remote areas and at night.
He said that the number of people on the Balkan migration route had increased in the past two weeks after countries started lifting restrictions they had had in place due to the coronavirus pandemic.
At the beginning of the year, Greece moved several thousand migrants from islands to the mainland, while Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have abolished movement restriction, the deputy commissioner said.
"This has created additional pressure and encouraged migrants to continue their journey towards Slovenia," said Senica.
In the past days, several groups of migrants have been detected trying to enter the country illegally and continue their journey towards Italy.
According to police data, there are more than 10,000 migrants in Serbia and Bosnia-Herzegovina who want to continue their journey to the EU.
The General Police Department said today that it had detected 3,139 attempts at illegal border crossing in the first five months of the year. Last year, the figure for the same period stood at 4,426. The police attributed the drop to strict border measures accompanying the coronavirus pandemic.
