Police from four European nations will begin joint patrols at the Slovenia-Croatia border in a bid to intercept migrants and asylum seekers trying to reach Western Europe.
The Slovenian interior ministry said on Friday that five officers from Estonia, six from Lithuania and 10 from Poland will join its own border troops.
Joint patrols are expected to start next week. The move comes as part of efforts by Slovenia’s right-wing Prime Minister Janez Jansa to tighten border control
Thousands of people trying to reach the European Union have ended up stranded in Balkan countries such as Serbia or Bosnia. They pass through Croatia and Slovenia before moving on to western Europe.
Slovenia is poised to set up an additional 60 kilometers of barbed wire and video surveillance along its Croatian border.
In the first two months of 2021, Slovenian police processed 630 cases of illegal border crossings, down from 1,171 in the same period in 2020 and a continuation of an overall downward trend in migration to Europe.
