Over 2,700 Iraqis entered Slovenia in two years

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - In the past two years, over 2700 Iraqis entered Slovenia attempting to reach other European countries, a police official told Rudaw on Friday.

Drago Menegalija, a public relations representative of Slovenian police, told Rudaw’s Nyaz Mustafa that 1,579 Iraqis entered through the border with Croatia in 2022 and another 1,150 crossed in 2023.

The police do not keep records on the ethnicities of the migrants.

In October, Slovenia reintroduced a temporary control on the Schengen border with Croatia and Hungary. The policy is set to last until June, according to Menegalija.

Slovenian police recorded 12,634 “irregular” crossings since the control was introduced. 

“In the same period of time before reintroduction of border control a number of 21,000 irregular border crossings were registered,” Menegalija said.

The country is currently in the process of deporting 19 migrants, none of whom are Iraqi citizens.

Around 20,000 people from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region migrated out of the country in 2023, with at least nine of them losing their lives on dangerous and illegal smuggling routes, according to Summit (Lutka) Foundation for Refugees and Displaced Affairs.

Since 2015, over 760,000 people have migrated from Iraq and the Kurdistan Region. In that period, the lowest number recorded was in 2023 with 19,500 migrants, Hussein Hama Salih, the Greece representative of Lutka told Rudaw in December.

Hopes of escaping endless crises, including political instability, corruption, and a lack of employment are among the factors driving the migration.