The problem of illegal migrations is getting increasingly out of control in Slovenia and is seriously undermining the national security of the country. The "Balkan Route", which runs through Slovenia, is the avenue via which migrants are looking for a better life in Western countries; as a result, the Slovenian border is illegally crossed by hundreds of migrants daily. Last year alone more than 35,000 illegal migrants were captured, which is a 91% increase on 1999. Of these, 20,000 came to Slovenia from Croatia. The greatest numbers of illegal migrants originally come from Iran, Romania and Turkey. The magnitude of illegal mass crossings of the national border, as part of migration flows, has escalated to the extent that it is posing a general threat to the safety of people and property, health and the environment, while reflecting itself in the level of crime. Given the directions specified in the Resolution on the Starting Points of the National Security of the Republic of Slovenia, these conditions have reached the point at which they threaten the internal security of the Republic of Slovenia.
Furthermore, illegal migrations have a number of other negative effects: an increase in primary crime, i.e. criminal offences committed directly by illegal migrants (burglaries, car thefts, robberies, abductions, assaults on the police) as well as in secondary crime (organised crime related to the smuggling of people, white slavery, prostitution, illegal trade in human body parts).
The largest number of illegal migrants enter Slovenia from Croatia in the Ormož and Ljutomer regions. Since 1995 the number of captured illegal migrants arriving from Croatia has risen by 543 per cent. For example, 12,044 people were apprehended last year at the Slovenian-Croatian border, which is 125 per cent more than the year before; 2,605 illegal migrants were apprehended at the border with Hungary, 2,318 at the border with Italy (or 28 per cent fewer than in the same period the previous year), and 460 at the border with Austria (39 per cent fewer than in the same period the year before). According to unofficial data, the police manage to capture only one in three persons crossing the Slovenian national border illegally.
Slovenia is also increasingly becoming a target country, which will have negative effects on employment and social security and will cause a number of additional difficulties related to the integration of aliens into the cultural environment of Slovenia. Of course, migrations are not only a problem in Slovenia but one which is becoming more and more serious in practically all European countries and indeed in all developed countries. The question can be raised of how to encourage other countries to contribute to restricting the tide of illegal migration. The solution will have to come in the form of agreements concluded as soon as possible at the diplomatic level with those countries that facilitate migration flows, particularly with Bosnia- Herzegovina and the FRY, as well as with the countries from which most migrants originate, e.g. Iran, Turkey, Romania and Bangladesh. Slovenia is already making efforts to reach an agreement with Bosnia-Herzegovina for the latter to introduce, as soon as possible, a visa regime compatible with that valid in the European Union. The need to identify the reasons for mass departures from these countries is also becoming increasingly apparent.
Given that Slovenia is in the first group of candidate countries for accession to the EU, it has been intensely involved in the harmonisation of its legislation with the EU acquis. This harmonisation also applies to the operative/technical field of police operations, which must be brought into compliance with the standards and norms set by the EU. Slovenia has recently taken a step towards convergence with these standards by setting up joint police patrols on the border between Slovenia and Italy, thereby consolidating its status as a serious candidate for accession to the EU.
The Slovenia-Italy border is controlled by joint police patrols
On 15 January the first joint Slovenian/Italian police patrols were introduced at the Rožna Dolina international border crossing, where a one-month trial control of the border between the two countries in the region between Mirna and Solkan will take place. Slovenia and Italy decided to set up these patrols in December last year by signing the appropriate memorandum. This involves a new model of operation by the Slovenian police in the border region, which has been brought into compliance with the Schengen standards of protection of the external border of the EU; the results of this pilot project, regarding which both sides have high expectations, will be known after the expiry of the one-month trial period. This new element is expected to reduce the flows of illegal migration, which are not making the life of the local population any easier and which, in particular, are making the operation of institutions located in the border region more difficult. Last year alone, 20,000 illegal migrants crossed this part of the Slovenian border. In order to abide by the legal regulations valid in the two countries, police officers will not be permitted to carry or use firearms in the territory of the other country. Their basic task will be to play the role of advisors and informants for the purpose of preventing illegal migrations, and to offer their assistance in procedures of returning migrants on the basis of bilateral agreements; the latter is one of the main reasons why Italy put forward the initiative for this kind of cooperation, since last year, out of the already- mentioned 20,000 illegal migrants, only a mere 4,000 could be returned on the basis of evidence.
An important foreign policy aspect of this question is also the Schengen border, in view of which Slovenia is facing the obligation to establish European security standards on the 670-km-long border with Croatia. Given the current conditions of considerable permeability and uncontrolled border crossings (34 border crossings and, after the signing of an agreement with Croatia, an additional 24), the meeting of the Schengen criteria will be an exceptionally demanding project in terms of both personnel and technical capacities. Slovenia will need at least 2,100 police officers to protect the border in accordance with EU standards. The border between Slovenia and Croatia will at the same time be the southern border of the EU, which is why the introduction of Schengen standards on this border is a problem which concerns not only Slovenia but the EU as well.
The Act Amending the Asylum Act
Immediately following their entry in the country, most illegal migrants apply for asylum, which in the first ten months of last year was done by 9,450 persons, this figure having been a mere 766 the year before that. For this reason, at its session of 9 November 2000 the Government adopted the new Act Amending the Asylum Act, declaring neighbouring Croatia to be a "safe third country". The National Assembly adopted the new Act on 21 December 2000 using the fast-track procedure. The new Act Amending the Asylum Act is expected to yield more success in preventing abuse of the asylum procedure while raising the level of legal protection for genuine asylum seekers. Until the adoption of the Act Amending the Asylum Act, Slovenia had the reputation as the most liberal European country in this respect. Last year the Republic of Slovenia registered more than 11,000 applications for asylum submitted by foreign nationals, where more than 80 per cent evidently abused the procedure. The year before last, for example, only 766 people applied for asylum. One of the major reasons for this enormous rise in the number of asylum applications lay with the provisions of the previous Asylum Act, which provided for a number of benefits, the most important of which was the right to free movement. In the recent period the majority of foreign nationals caught by the police crossing the border illegally applied for asylum immediately, with many of them reporting to the police voluntarily. Asylum applicants then generally used the right to free movement to continue their journey towards Western Europe, abusing their asylum application in order to avoid hearings before the misdemeanours judge and consequently expulsion to their home country.
The declaration of Croatia as a "safe third country", as defined in the Act Amending the Asylum Act, means that Croatia now has the status of a country in which the migrant remained prior to his arrival in Slovenia and in which he was safe against persecution or violations of human rights, in which he had the basic means for sustenance, and in which he could seek asylum without risking forced removal or expulsion. In practice this means that, during their processing of asylum applications, the services of the Ministry of the Interior establish the country from which the migrant arrived, and if that country is Croatia they will return him either to this neighbouring country or to the migrant's home country in accordance with the valid agreement on the return of persons.
Accommodation capacities - a pressing problem
Accommodation capacities for foreign nationals remain a pressing problem. Last year premises for accommodating foreign nationals took in a total of 27,634 people, where 13,058 asylum seekers were accommodated in the Asylum Centre and 14,576 illegal foreign nationals in the Transit Centre for Foreigners, who had to be distributed between all available premises. Thus the Centre in Ljubljana at times accommodated in excess of 600 people at the same time (in November, 51 foreign nationals remained outside the Centre simply because it was impossible to provide them with accommodation). The Centre located in Prosenjakovci housed 150 foreign nationals. The unbearable conditions force as many as 96 per cent of these people to leave the Asylum Centre and the Transit Centre for Foreigners voluntarily and to head towards unknown destinations. Most of them enter Italy illegally.
All this substantially hinders the consistent implementation of the provisions of both the Act Amending the Asylum Act and the Aliens Act, and jeopardises the safety of both migrants and the people working with them. The accommodation of two different categories of foreign nationals in the same facility also causes difficulties, since the procedures in which they are involved and their rights and obligations differ significantly, not only in terms of national law but also in terms of international legal norms and conventions. In addition, current circumstances in the facilities contribute considerably to the fact that foreign nationals cannot be provided with basic living and hygiene conditions.
In view of the above, the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Slovenia began its search for a new location for the accommodation of aliens in 1998, though all attempts to acquire suitable facilities have thus far been unsuccessful. The solution currently appears to lie with the operationalisation of a former barracks - i.e. the Velike Bloke barracks - which could be adjusted to accommodate between 350 and 500 people. This is the facility in which refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina were accommodated during the war. The plan is to relocate the entire management of the Centre, and the employees working at and foreign nationals residing in the Centre located in Celovška Cesta in Ljubljana; in other words, to relocate the entire Transit Centre for Foreigners. The Prosenjakovci Centre calls for an increase in accommodation capacities from the current 65 to between 120 and 150 persons. One solution could also be the installation of 12 trailers, accompanied with two sanitary trailers.
The Government has already set up a Coordination Group responsible for the coordination of direct measures for ensuring effective border control, the resolution of the accommodation problem, and the determination of a new site for the Transit Centre for Foreigners currently located in Šiška, as well as for the coordination of foreign policy and other long-term measures.