Croatia, Italy and Slovenia discuss illegal migration

The interior ministers of Croatia, Italy and Slovenia held their second trilateral meeting on the issue of illegal migration and Italy and Slovenia's decision to reintroduce border controls, in Buzet on Tuesday.

Croatian Interior Minister Davor Božinović said after the meeting that everything agreed to at the first meeting in Italy three months ago, such as joint police patrols and the exchange of information, had been put into practice. He also claimed that Italy and Slovenia’s decision to reintroduce border controls within the Schengen Area has not affected citizens: "With pleasure we have concluded here today that in spite of the reintroduction of internal border controls as a result of the attack on Israel that raised security levels throughout Europe, this was not felt by the citizens of our three countries to a degree that would affect their day-to-day activities in terms of border crossings, especially in those areas at the borders."

Italian Interior Minister, Matteo Piantedosi, agreed with this assessment: "I would like to point out that our police have arrested 76 people, 52 of them for inciting illegal migration. We are glad that, on the one hand, we have discovered that path and that we have started these activities, without affecting relations between our countries."

Finally, Slovenian Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar said that the joint police work and information sharing is producing results: "The Western Balkan migrant route was very active last year, the Slovenian police detained more than 60 thousand people who came to our country, these are very high numbers that require joint actions."

Their next meeting will be held in March in Slovenia.

Source: HRT