Sečovlje – Plovanija Border Crossing

This was the last visit of the IBRG SITEX-23 expedition. Located on a major north south tourist route leading from Slovenia into Croatia. The border crossing between Slovenia and Croatia was a bridge over the River Dragonja, the river is the third-longest river in Istria. The border is not demarcated with numbered markers – part of a legacy of being part of Yugoslavia. As we travelled from the Dragonja – Plovanija-Kaste border crossing on a small local road we identified the area of land which is one of the border disputes between Slovenia and Croatia.

The Border

Slovenian Border Facilities

Since January 2023 when Croatia joined the Schengen Zone, passport and custom checks no longer occur at these checkpoints. The Slovenian government has issued an ordinance temporarily reintroducing controls at the internal borders with Croatia for 9 days in October 2023.

Croatian Border Facilities

These border facilities have been built on land claimed by Slovenia.

Slovenia – Croatia Border Dispute

Following the breakup of Yugoslavia in 1991, Slovenia and Croatia became independent countries. As the border between the countries had not been determined in detail prior to independence, several parts of the border were disputed, both on land and at sea. In the delta of Dragonja, Slovenia claims that the border is south of the river (thus including all the land that is registered in the cadastral municipality of Sečovlje), while Croatia claims that the border is on the river itself (St. Odoric’s canal). The Croatian side rejects Slovenian arguments for cadastral borders on just this part of the mutual border (where such are in favour of Slovenia), saying that if the cadastral principle was consistently implemented, Slovenia would lose much more territory elsewhere than it could receive in the Gulf of Piran.

Another source of conflict in this area has been the border crossing at Plovanija, due to a checkpoint unilaterally established by Croatia on territory that has been claimed by both sides. Despite stating that the border crossing checkpoint is only a temporary solution, Croatia has included this checkpoint as indisputable in its international documents. Consequently, the territories with a Slovenian population south of that border checkpoint are considered to be under Croatian occupation by many Slovenian politicians and legal experts

As with all territorial disputes ii is complex with differing interpretations of treaties, maps and population demographics. The current border is the Dragonja River or more accurately St. Odoric’s canal. Slovenia’s claim land south of that and it is possible to see the previous river course.