"Slovenia's new government plans to remove the barriers on its border with Croatia, set up to prevent the entry of illegal migrants, by the end of the year, for which an operational plan will be made soon, it was said in Ljubljana on Thursday," Croatian state agency Hina reported on Thursday. 

“Removal of temporary technical barriers is one of the government’s priorities, officials at the Slovenian Ministry of the Interior confirmed to the STA news agency, noting that a plan for the removal of the barriers should be made by the end of this month,” Hina said.

According to the ministry’s data, there are 135 kilometers of wooden fencing and 60 kilometers of wire fencing on Slovenia’s border with Croatia. Installing the fences cost Slovenia €23.2 million, and an additional €3.6 million was spent on maintenance to date. These barriers were put up in 2015, at the time when the migration crisis was at its peak.

Interior Minister, Tatjana Bobnar, said recently in Parliament that the physical barriers on the border with Croatia would be replaced with cameras and drones to prevent illegal entries by migrants.

After the removal of barriers on the border with Croatia – which currently serves as the southern border of EU’s passport-free travel area – Slovenia would continue investing “maximum effort to protect the area” and that there was therefore no reason for Austria to keep extending its own increased border controls on the its border with Slovenia, also introduced in 2015, Slovenia’s Foreign Minister, Tanja Fajon, told Austria’s Foreign Minister, Alexander Schallenberg, earlier this week.