Slovenia deploys police on borders with Croatia, Hungary
Slovenia on Saturday deployed police on border crossings with Croatia and Hungary to prevent potential security threats, leading to queues as travelers waited to have their documents checked, Reuters reports.
The Slovenian government had on Friday decided to introduce temporary border controls until Oct. 30, following its neighbour Italy which introduced controls on its border crossing with Slovenia to improve home security.
Police were deployed on 14 border crossings with Croatia and Hungary, Slovenian news agency STA reported. The remaining 18 crossings will not have a permanent police presence.
Travelers queued to have their papers checked at the Obrezje crossing on the border with Croatia, where checks had not taken place since Jan. 1 this year when Croatia joined the control-free Schengen Area.
Explaining its decision to introduce border controls, the government cited security threats that may come from what it said were "members of various terrorist and extremist movements and groups" moving from areas of armed conflict and aiming to reach Europe.
It also cited a rise of organised crime in the western Balkans.
