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SLOVAKIA
1. INVOLUNTARY RETURN
1.1 POLICY
317
SLOVAKIA
In 1993, the Slovak Republic became an independent country following the dissolution of the
former Federal Republic of Czechoslovakia. Over the years, the country has increasingly
received a large number of migrants, who continue to stay on its territory. Among these foreign
migrants, the Roma minorities from neighbouring countries constitute a substantial group.
The arrival of foreign irregular migrants in the country began about a decade ago, most of them
from Eastern and south-eastern Europe and Asia, using the country as a transit to move further
into Western Europe and other central and Eastern European countries. This was reported in a
UN document entitled “International Cooperation in Combating Trans-national Crime Smuggling
of Illegal Migrants” (E/CN.15/1997/8/Add.1), which stated: “Slovakia considered itself to
be a transit State by virtue of the illegal crossing of its borders by migrants en route to destination
points in other states within Europe.
The crossings were well organized and yielded high prices per individual.” 1 Over the past decade,
there have been thousands of irregular border crossings every year. In 1998, irregular border
crossings numbered 8,236 (entry 1,916 and exit 6,230); in 2000, they numbered 6,062 (entry
2,239 and exit 3,823); in 2001 the number soared to 15,548 (entry 4,775 and exit 10,773) and in
2002 the figure was 15,235 (entry 4,982 and exit 10,252). 2
The Slovak Republic has agreements with dozens of countries for full or partial visa waivers.
Citizens of the following countries do not need a visa to enter Slovakia: Andorra, Austria, Belgium,
Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland,
France, Germany, Great Britain, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, South Korea, Latvia,
Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Malaysia, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, San
Marino, Slovenia, South Africa, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, USA, the Vatican. 3 Although entry
visas are not required for these nationals, the number of irregular migrants from these countries
is not high.
The number of asylum seekers in the country has remained high over the years. In 2001, there
were 8,151 asylum applications. In 2002, asylum applications reached 9,239. In the first nine
months of 2003, a total of 6,162 asylum applications were lodged, 4 mostly by persons who
entered the country through Hungary and Ukraine.