By: Dr Vinko Gorenak
Regarding illegal migrants, I came across the following information: “If you enter Singapore illegally, you get 6 months in prison; if you enter Russia illegally, you get 2 years in prison; if you enter India illegally, you get 5 years in prison; if you enter Pakistan illegally, you get 10 years in prison; if you enter North Korea illegally, you may even face the death penalty. But if you enter Europe illegally, you can expect free accommodation, healthcare, selected food, and more.”
You should, of course, not believe everything you find in the media today. Some information is also very difficult to verify. That is why I used artificial intelligence, which gave me the same results.
More verifiable, however, are domestic data, especially financial ones. Two governments, Šarec’s and Janša’s, allocated just over 23 million euros for illegal migrants. Golob’s government, on the other hand, almost 170 million euros. More than telling figures.
In fact, this is also logical. In the coalition agreement for the 2022–2026 period, Golob’s coalition wrote that they would remove the wire fence on the border, and do so by the end of 2022. With this, they made it clear to all illegal migrants that they were welcome in Slovenia.
Consequently, the following data are also understandable. In 2019, 16,099 illegal migrants entered Slovenia illegally (Šarec’s government); in 2020, 14,592 (Šarec’s and Janša’s governments); in 2021, 10,198 (Janša’s government); in 2022, 32,042 (Janša’s and Golob’s governments); in 2023, 60,587 (Golob’s government); in 2024, 46,192 (Golob’s government); and in 2025, up to September, 16,116 (Golob’s government).
Let us also look at the fulfilment of the coalition pledge to remove all wire fencing on the border with Croatia by the end of 2022. This, of course, did not happen, not even close. But they did spend a lot of money on it. In response to a parliamentary question by MP Anton Šturbej, the Minister of the Interior, Branko Zlobko, replied at the end of 2025 as follows: “On 4 April 2023, the Ministry of the Interior concluded a contract for the removal of 143.4 km of panel fencing. As of 1 January 2025, 85.3 km of panel fencing had been removed, and at the time of preparing this response, 115.6 km had been removed. There remain 22.9 km of installed panel fencing on the border. For activities related to the removal of technical barriers, we paid 4,470,439 euros.” It is therefore clear that they said one thing and did another.
Let me mention another gem related to illegal migrants. On 21 October 2023, Slovenia reintroduced border controls on the borders with Croatia and Hungary. But not at all border crossings – only at the larger ones. At the smaller crossings, border control was not introduced. The official reason for reintroducing border control only at the larger crossings with Croatia and Hungary was “increased terrorist threat to Slovenia and EU countries.” Make of that what you will. The Ministry of the Interior introduced renewed control only at the largest border crossings with Croatia and Hungary, and not at the smaller ones. From this, one might conclude that potential terrorists enter Slovenia and the EU only through the larger border crossings, probably in expensive vehicles with drivers, sitting in the front passenger seat, wearing a checkered scarf on their head and holding a submachine gun.
When MP Anton Šturbej asked the then Minister of the Interior, Boštjan Poklukar, in 2025 how many potential terrorists the police had apprehended at the border, he received the answer: none.
Who is crazy here? The police deploy officers at the large border crossings, where there are of course no potential terrorists, while at the green border they do not have enough officers to stop illegal migrants. Perhaps this is the goal of Golob’s coalition. In other words: everything for illegal migrants and nothing for sick children, for whom we will continue collecting voluntary donations and bottle caps.