At today's press conference at the Border police station Gruškovje, Marko Gašperlin, Assistant director of the Uniformed Police Directorate at the General Directorate for the area of state borders, presented the second stage from the five stages of the Neptune 2009 joint operation which is taking place from 13 May at some border crossings on the border between Slovenia and Croatia. It is organised by the Frontex Agency in cooperation with Slovenia, Hungary and Romania.
This week, the Slovenian police was therefore also visited by Klaus Rösler, Director of Operations Division at the Frontex agency (i.e., European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the European Union), as this agency coordinates all operations between the Member States of the European Union.
According to Marko Gašperlin, Frontex is responsible for efficient control of the external borders of the EU. Thus, foreign police officers are present at Obrežje and Gruškovje border crossings throughout the year, and the results of good cooperation with the Croatian security authorities can be already noticed. For example, the number of stolen vehicles and falsified documents went down on the border between Slovenia and Croatia, he explained. As added by Gilio Toić Sintić, Head of the division for neighbouring countries at the Administration for State Borders of the Police Directorate at the Croatian Ministry of the Interior, illegal migrations on the border between Croatia and Slovenia went down even by 40 percent in the last 12 months.
Press conference participants (from left to right): Director of Operations Division at the Frontex Agency, Klaus Rösler, Assistant Director at the Uniformed Police Directorate at the General Police Directorate for borders, Marko Gašperlin, Head of the division for neighbouring countries at the Administration for State Borders of the Police Directorate at the Croatian Ministry of the Interior Gilio Toić Sintić and Police Public Relations Officer Leon Keder.
Until 27 May this year, 13 police officers from EU member states (Austria, Belgium, Germany, Estonia, Span, Hungary, Italy, Romania, and Great Britain and North Ireland) were deployed at Petišovci, Gruškovje, Dobovec and Obrežje border crossings in the framework of the joint operation Netptune 2009. Based on a working arrangement between the Frontex Agency and the Republic of Croatia, four Croatian police officers are also involved in the joint operation at border crossings.
The purpose of the Neptune 2009 operation is to enhance the control of the EU external border, with the police officers performing checks on illegal work and illegal overstay in EU member states, falsified documents and stolen vehicles. In addition, strengthened border control helps to detect persons hidden in vehicles, particularly in goods vehicles, thus preventing illegal migrations on the green border between Croatia and Slovenia.