Get informed before trying to cross the border.
Due to strict controls of passengers entering Croatia from Slovenia, there are long lines on the border crossing with the country this morning, reports Index.hr on April 14, 2017.
Slovenian traffic services report that the line of vehicles at the Obrežje (Bregana) border crossing on the Slovenian side in the early morning hours was more than 10 kilometres long and that people were waiting for entry to Croatia for about 4 to 5 hours. Lines of vehicles are significantly shorter at some of the other border crossings, for example at Gruškovje (Macelj), and at the crossings in Istria.
The Slovenian border police are conducting systematic controls of all passengers in accordance with the amended Schengen regulation. Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar said yesterday that Slovenia must persevere in carrying out such strict controls if it wants to remain in the Schengen area, but added that it was possible to temporarily make controls less strict, depending on the situation at individual border crossings.
The Slovenian media say that the regime of border controls is decided independently by commanders of individual police stations at every border crossing, and that they take into account several criteria.
The problems at the borders have been causing difficulties for Slovenian businesses and tourism for the past few days, the Slovenian media say. According to the Delo daily from Slovenia, the number of shopping excursions from Croatian Istria to the Slovenian towns on the coast fell by half, and some Croatian tour operator organizers have abandoned plans to organize one-day trips to Slovenia due to long waiting times at the border.
According to Delo, due to the expected deadlocks at the border, there are few Croats who are expected to decide to go for one-day trips to Slovenia, which was previously expected because of the upcoming school holidays in Croatia. The number of Croatian guests in Slovenian thermal spas, especially those in Čatež near Zagreb, has been greatly reduced in recent days.
