President Pahor believes that the wire fence on the border between Slovenia and Croatia is no longer needed.
Slovenian President Borut Pahor said that the wire fence on the border constructed by Slovenian on its border with Croatia is no longer needed in his opinion, reports Index.hr on February 7, 2017.
“We did need the wire border fence, but for a lot of time it has not had any real role, such as the one which may have existed six months ago”, said the President at a press conference in Ljubljana, where he talked about his upcoming visits to Germany, Russia and Ukraine, which will run from Wednesday to Sunday.
Pahor said that Slovenia, by removing the wire barriers for migrants, would send a message that it applies the security and safety measures at its borders “in proportion to” the actual situation on the ground, and only when they are necessary.
The Slovenian President reiterated his position from a few months ago when, after a visit to Turkey, he said that according to information available to him there was no longer a threat that a new wave of refugees could start moving along the Balkan route.
Pahor also commented on the statement given by Slovenian Prime Minister Miro Cerar who late last week, during an informal summit of the European Union in Malta, spoke about the “Adriatic” route which would mean that the migrants could come by sea first to Croatian part of Istria and then proceed to Slovenia, with the aim of moving further towards central Europe. This was a surprise to many, because there has been no information about any such route being opened.
Reacting to Cerar’s statement given in Malta, Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković express his surprise. He said that he had no knowledge about the new “Adriatic” route which would allow migrants to reach Slovenia through Istria. “Maybe this is some kind of misunderstanding, there may be an influx of migrants coming to Slovenia through Italy, but I as prime minister do not have any knowledge from the security services that the Adriatic route has been opened, which would assume the arrival of ships through the Strait of Otranto to Istria. We have not noticed that so far, nor have I noticed that Prime Minister Cerar said anything about it during the meeting”, said Plenković.
Slovenian Foreign Minister Karl Erjavec later tried to explain the Prime Minister’s words, saying that Cerar spoke about the existence of criminal networks which smuggle people and which are thinking about that route as well, according to information available to the Slovenian police.
