The Slovenian minister believes that Croatia should join Schengen, and supports border fences
ZAGREB, 18 November 2021 – Croatia’s entry into the Schengen area will make an important contribution to the control of illegal migration in the region, and Slovenia continues to strongly support this goal, Slovenian Interior Minister Aleš Hojs said on Thursday.
The Minister is convinced that the problem of illegal migration must be solved by all means, including border fences.
We are a strong supporter of Croatia’s entry into the Schengen area, all technical conditions are mostly met and we are waiting for a political decision, Hojs told reporters in Sarajevo at an international conference on tackling illegal migration.
The decision on Croatia’s membership in the Schengen area is expected to be made by the summer of 2022.
I don’t think a final decision will be made before June or July next year, Hoys said.
According to him, moving the external Schengen border to the south will contribute to better control of illegal migration, and it would be best to establish an effective control mechanism at the Greek border, which would close the Western Balkan route.
Hoys stressed that the situation had worsened with the hybrid war of Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko against the European Union and the collapse of the Afghan government.
All this is an additional reason for a large number of illegal migrants to return to Europe, thus destabilizing the entire EU, Hoys said, noting that the situation is significantly different from 2015 because they are no longer welcome in the EU.
He emphasized that everything Lukashenko had done by pushing migrants against Poland was undoubtedly a hybrid war and that the EU would not allow the use of migrants as a political tool or weapon.
Hoys warns that the political agreement with Belarus is not working.
Although he believes that there is still a lot of room for talks, he believes that the EU’s borders must be secured at all costs, even if fences need to be raised.
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