Interior Ministry: Slovakia Saw 60,000 Illegal Migrants in 2022-23

Bratislava, 16 April (TASR) – Around 60,000 illegal migrants arrived in Slovakia in 2022 and 2023, marking record figures in the country's history, the Interior Ministry stated on Thursday, attributing responsibility to a former interior minister and a former police president. The ministry responded this way to statements by Slovak politicians referring to Hungarian election winner Peter Magyar, who spoke about the practices of the previous Hungarian government with respect to illegal migration. "Seizing on the words of Hungary's future prime minister by the Slovak opposition is merely a weak attempt to cover up their own incompetence and the mistakes made by the former government while in power," the ministry said. It added that instead of addressing citizens' security, the previous government downplayed the situation. According to the ministry, the previous government's lack of consistency and leniency encouraged smugglers and contributed to Slovakia becoming part of an illegal migration route. It also believes tools under the law on the residence of foreigners were effectively abandoned at the time. "If there was an influx of illegal migrants, they should have dealt with it when they were in power. Instead, they failed to manage the situation, did not address it, and today, as always, try to look for someone else to blame. The truth is simple – all they should do is admit their own mistake and acknowledge that it was they who failed to handle illegal migration. Through their passivity, they endangered the safety of Slovakia's residents," the ministry noted. It added that the current government is adopting measures against illegal migration, resulting in almost zero illegal migration along the Western Balkan route. In his statement, Magyar said that, unlike Hungary's current prime minister Viktor Orban, he would not release 2,200 legally convicted migrant smugglers from Hungarian prisons. He also stated: "We will not transport migrants to the Slovak border, even if it were required by the interests of our 'social-democrat friend' during an election campaign." On Thursday, the 'Slovakia' party filed a criminal complaint with the Slovak Prosecutor-General's Office against Prime Minister Robert Fico, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (both Smer-SD), and Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD). The reason is serious suspicion that the migration crisis may have been deliberately misused before the 2023 parliamentary elections in cooperation with representatives of a foreign power. The KDH party also called on Fico to explain Magyar's remarks, which it says suggest that transporting migrants to the Slovak border was organised before the last Slovak elections. mf