Bangladeshis among 113 Migrants Detained in Slovenia

Slovenian police said on Monday that they detained more than a hundred migrants on a single evening after crossing the border with Croatia, reports AFP. 

Most migrants come from Pakistan and Bangladesh and are likely to be returned to Croatia, according to the police.  

While detentions at the border with Croatia are not unprecedented, it is uncommon for so many migrants to be detained at the same time.

“A total of 113 illegal migrants were apprehended on Sunday evening at different locations” near the town of Ilirska Bistrica on the southern border with Croatia, police spokeswoman Anita Leskovec told AFP on Monday.

The mayor of Ilirska Bistrica, Emil Rojc, told Radio Slovenija that the number of people seeking to enter the country had risen in recent weeks.

Approximately 30 additional migrants were detained by police near Ilirska Bistrica earlier this weekend, while an additional 34 were found in a van driven by a Belgian citizen near Celje, northeast of the capital Ljubljana, Slovene news agency STA reported.

Interior Minister Ales Hojs told the news conference on Monday that "all these incidents, including the one in Ilirska Bistrica, indicate that the organized market for illicit trafficking is thriving."

He added that about 100 migrant smugglers are currently in Slovenian jails, indicating that the demand for illegal trafficking is at its height.

In the first eight months of 2020, a total of 10,223 illegal border crossings were registered in Slovenia.

Given the downturn caused by the coronavirus pandemic earlier this year, this reflects a 3.3 percent improvement over the same timeframe in 2019.

Most of those detained this year have come from Pakistan and Morocco, according to police statistics.