By Moja Dolenjska
The police and residents along the Slovenian southern border have been warning for a long time of the fact that illegal migrants have very good instructions on which route to take to Slovenia. But now it has turned out that already in Bosnia and Herzegovina, instructions are distributed to them, where Slovenian and European legislation is described in detail. They are also taught precisely how to behave when they arrive in Slovenia, so that the police will not return them to Croatia. Those active in this are in the so-called non-governmental organisation whose co-owner is Darko Štrajn from Črnomlje.
Yesterday, the civil initiative against the migrant centre in Bela Krajina published a facsimile of the note (it is published at the end of the article), which shows that Katarina Bervar Sternad called them on August 21st, 2018, at 7:19 p.m. She is the director of the Ljubljana Peace Institute, which is privately owned, and one of the co-owners is Darko Štrajn from Črnomlje (now living in Ljubljana). The institute also co-owns several other institutions, they are said to operate as non-governmental organisations and as such are also co-financed by taxpayers’ money, as well as by the funds of the aging billionaire George Soros, whose goal is to bring as many migrants as possible to Europe.
The director ordered the police and threatened to file a complaint
The minutes of Police Station Črnomelj further show that Bervar Sternad introduced herself as the director of the Legal Information Centre of Non-Governmental Organisations (PIC) – which is also co-owned by the Ljubljana Peace Institute and said that they were called by foreigners located in the area of Police Station Črnomelj. She instructed the police that the migrants are located near the Učakovci settlement, and that they all want to apply for international protection.
In the following, she sent the “GPS location where the foreigners are located” to the phone of the police officer on duty, and at the same time she sent it to the e-mail of Police Station Črnomelj. In the e-mail, she provided the names and birth details of four Afghans. The police then arrested them in Učakovci, at house no. 12. In her e-mail, Bervar Sternad also threatened the police “that in the case of the return of foreigners to the Republic of Croatia, she will file criminal charges against the police”.
In the minutes of Police Station Črnomelj, it is also written: “When stating the reasons for international protection, they state that they are applying for international protection in Slovenia because they were advised to do so by representatives of non-governmental organisations from the Republic of Slovenia who visited them in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Migrants also said that representatives of non-governmental organisations in Bosnia and Herzegovina gave them instructions on how to act when they arrived in the territory of the Republic of Slovenia, so that they would not be returned to Croatia. One copy of the instructions was also handed over to the police by the migrants during the police procedure. The leaflet contains exact instructions, as well as the contact telephone numbers of the NGOs Slovenian Philanthropy, Association ODNOS, and the Legal Information Centre of NGOs – PIC.
Similar in Ilirska Bistrica
A similar thing is happening at Police Station Ilirska Bistrica. The official note shows that in July in the camp in Velika Kladuša, the migrant contacted the non-governmental organisation PIC. The camp was visited by “Andrej and an unknown woman who introduced herself as a PIC lawyer”. They explained to the migrant how he must apply for asylum and at the same time offered him free legal assistance in obtaining the status of asylum seeker in Slovenia. They gave him a phone number, through which he also communicated in the WhatsApp application. He told the police that he was in contact with the PIC all the time. He said that before they left BiH, he had to provide the PIC with information about the persons traveling with him. The PIC advised him that it would not be difficult for the police to catch them when crossing the state border between Croatia and Slovenia and that he should also inform them about the police procedure.
If the police will not accept the application for asylum, they should be informed immediately that “the PIC will take action against the police”. The migrant did not want to tell the police whether the PIC also advised him where to cross the state border between Croatia and Slovenia. The following document shows that in Velika Kladuša, “non-governmental organisations distribute phone numbers” to migrants. One of the migrants said that he wrote down the phone number, and they were also instructed that they could go illegally to Slovenia and apply for asylum there. “The person whose number we have is supposed to call the Slovenian police himself and report us and make sure that they cannot return us to Croatia.”
There were 8 migrants in the group, and the person from the PIC instructed them to go to the railway line, where the police could track them down the easiest. Then they went to the road and saw a police car. The migrant said: “I turned on the light on my phone and started waving at them so that they noticed us and arrested us.”
Instructions to migrants in Arabic
At the same time, illegal migrants receive instructions in Arabic at police stations. This also shows who they should call for help in Slovenia.
Also in this case, the Legal Information Centre of Non-Governmental Organisations (PIC) is listed, which is co-owned by the Ljubljana Peace Institute (which is entirely privately owned), and which is also co-owned by Darko Štrajn, who is also a representative of the Alternative Academy Society. It was this association that opposed the protest of the people of Bela Krajina against the construction of a migrant centre in Metlika.
The article was originally published on our portal on September 14th, 2014. Now we are worse off. The Ministry of Internal Affairs is headed by Tatjana Bobnar, who hired Simona Zavratnik in her cabinet. She authorised her for migration matters. Zavratnik was previously employed at the Peace Institute – source.