Record number of illegal migrants in Slovakia in 2017

The police in 2017 recorded the highest number of illegal migrants in Slovakia since the country joined the Schengen area, said Police Corps President Tibor Gašpar at a press conference on Tuesday. A total of 2,706 illegal migrants were detected in Slovakia last year, while the police recorded 2,170 such people in 2016, meaning an increase of 536. The number of people reported as having illegal residence on the territory of Slovakia because, for example, they failed to leave once their visa expired or left Slovakia for other European countries, was 2,458 last year. The number of people who attempted to cross the state border illegally was 248 in 2017. In particular, the number of illegal Serb and Ukrainian migrants increased, together accounting for almost 75 percent of the total number of illegal migrants in Slovakia in 2017. In view of visa liberalisation and the current conditions on the Slovak labour market, it's assumed that this number will continue to go up. The police filed charges against 107 people for the criminal offence of people smuggling in 2017. "The police are really interested in discovering as many such cases as possible and in being effective. I'm glad that we've also been successful in revealing organised groups," said Gašpar.