Police officers from the Slovenian Specialized Traffic Control Unit (SENP), in cooperation with another police officer from the Office of Information Technology and Telecommunications at the General Police Administration, identified 19 individuals who were travelling illegally on Wednesday, July 26, the Slovenian Police and Ministry of Interior Affairs has announced.
The police officers were on the A1 road between Ljubljana and Murska Sobota, observing for violations by vehicles such as truck and bus drivers.
In a village in southeastern Slovenia, Šentrupert, a driver of a convoy including a towing vehicle and a semi-trailer with Romanian licence plates, was observed using a mobile phone while driving and not wearing a seat belt either, which led to his interception.
While investigating the semi-trailer’s load to guarantee adequate security, authorities discovered empty plastic thousand-litre IBC containers placed in two rows and two bases beneath the tarp.
After further investigation, the police officers found that six containers had been changed to conceal people and that inside of them were 19 individuals who had used this method of entering the country illegally.
The illegal migrants have received the proper treatment and have been identified to be of the following nationalities: six Sri Lankan citizens, five Bangladeshi citizens, five Pakistani citizens, two Nepalese citizens and one Indian citizen.
Last Friday, SchengenVisaInfo.com reported on two similar cases where customs officers in Hungary identified 54 individuals being transported illegally. As a result, two people were arrested and another one detained for people smuggling.
In the first case, two men, one from Romania and the other from Greece, concealed four women and 25 men among the equipment and moving packages inside their truck.
In the second case, 24 illegal migrants attempted to enter Slovenia from Hungary while being concealed in some small areas in a truck’s compartment by a Romanian driver.
In 2022 alone, 32,042 illegal migrants in total were discovered on the border by Slovenian Police which is a 214 per cent increase compared to the previous year and the highest figure since 2015.
The countries with the highest number of migrants recorded in Slovenia were the following:
- Afghanistan (6,010)
- Burundi (more than 5,000)
- India (3,900)
- Pakistan (2,400)
- Bangladesh (2,100)
- Russia ( more than 1,800)
- Iraq (more than 1,500)
- Cuba (almost 1,500)
Almost 31,500 migrants out of the total declared their purpose of migration to be international protection showing a big difference to 2021 when less than 6,000 such situations were recorded.
