Eight migrants from Afghanistan, including six children, were injured in a car crash near Koper, Slovenia, on Tuesday and the driver, a Croatian national, was arrested for human trafficking.

The accident occurred shortly before 3 o’clock in the morning, when the 24-year-old Croatian national lost control of the car, which swerved off the road and ended up on its roof.

The injured migrants were taken to hospital, while the driver was placed in detention on suspicion of human trafficking.

According to Slovenian police, about 5,000 illegal migrants have entered the country this year, many using the new Balkan route, from western Bosnia and Herzegovina via Croatia, mainly along Slovenia’s border with Croatia’s Karlovac and Istria counties.

Although 5,000 migrants entered Slovenia so far this year, compared to only some 2,000 throughout 2017, there is no reason for concern that another big migrant crisis might occur, said Peter Skerbis, head of the Slovenian police migration division.

There are more illegal crossings at this time of year because of the weather as well as broader circumstances on the traditional migration routes across the Mediterranean, he told the Slovenian POP-TV channel.

He added that Slovenian police successfully cooperate with Croatian authorities in preventing illegal migration, and that cooperation in returning illegal migrants back across the border was also going well, but that returning illegal migrants to other countries in the region was problematic.

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