Security and Migration Conference in Brdo kod Kranj

South-western Europe continues to be the area through which the majority of illegal migration passes, due to the so-called Western Balkan route. Last year alone, FRONTEX detected the passage of 78 percent of illegal migrants to Western Europe through this route.

Slovenian Interior Minister Boštjan Poklukar is hosting a meeting of ministers of the "Brdo Process" in Brdo kod Kranj. Representing Croatia is Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Davor Božinović. Also participating in the meeting are the Interior Ministers from Montenegro and Kosovo. The focus of the meeting is on regional action against current terrorist threats, combating illegal migration and human trafficking. The meeting is also being attended by European Commissioner for Enlargement Marta Kos, as well as European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration Magnus Brunner.

At the recent trilateral meeting of the interior ministers of Croatia, Slovenia and Italy in Gorizia, the ministers concluded that our countries are safe and that the targeted controls at major border crossings do not disrupt traffic. Italian Minister Matteo Piantedosi then pointed out that the Italian police detected 1 800 foreign citizens illegally crossing the border in a few months. According to him, these were primarily citizens of Morocco, Turkey, Syria, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Macedonia.

Cooperation in these "police formats" continues - information is exchanged, cooperation with INTERPOL is ongoing, and these meetings will become regular - it was said at the beginning of the conference.

Minister Božinović is participating in this morning's conference in Slovenia after yesterday's official visit to Croatia by Commissioner Brunner. He pointed out that Croatia is doing an incredible job in protecting the external borders of the European Union, noting that that the number of illegal migrations is drastically decreasing, primarily due to the great engagement of the Croatian police.

To combat the illegal migration passing through the Western Balkan route, some countries have increased surveillance at their borders since October 2023 - because of the potential terrorist threat, surveillance was introduced by Italy to Slovenia, and Slovenia did so on the border with Hungary as well as Croatia. It should also be noted that Austria has had this supervision for a whole decade. At the end of December, the Slovenian government extended that supervision due to the fall of the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad.

Source: HRT