Melania Trump statue missing from her hometown in Slovenia
"Melania" appeared on the banks of the River Sava in July 2020, four months before her human inspiration left the White House.Now, four months after the erstwhile Melanija Knavs resumed residence at Washington's most famous address, her larger-than-life-size avatar has apparently made an undignified exit from her Slovenian hometown, Sevnica.All that remains of the massive bronze statue are the feet – and the two-metre-tall tree stump they were standing on.
Melania Trump sculpture in Slovenia set on fire on US Independence DayNew Melania Trump metal statue unveiled in Slovenia
The symmetry would probably appeal to the whimsical US director Wes Anderson – who often features bizarre heists in his films. But even in his back catalogue, there has never been anything quite like the case of the cursed First Lady statue.Because this is not the first time a Melania Trump tribute has met a sticky end in Sevnica.The first iteration was unveiled in July 2019. Carved from a single piece of wood by a chainsaw-wielding local artisan called Ales "Maxi" Zupevc, it lasted a year before an unidentified perpetrator decided to turn it into a Fourth of July bonfire.Luckily, US artist Brad Downey – who commissioned Maxi to create the wooden original – had already made a cast of the statue. It duly made a comeback in bronze, at the same site.At its unveiling, Mr Downey said the new version had been designed to be "as solid as possible, out of a durable material which cannot be wantonly destroyed".But, as it turns out, it can be chopped off at the ankles and taken away.Local police say they are treating "Melania's" disappearance as "theft" and have launched an investigation.
Brad Downey has always insisted that his work was political. He chose Maxi as a collaborator because his upbringing had been similar to that of the First Lady.And he argued that Melania Trump benefitted from a fast-tracked US citizenship process, while other immigrants suffered under her husband's "xenophobic" policies.Now he suspects the statue's disappearance "has something to do with Trump getting re-elected".Meanwhile, in Sevnica, the local authorities have mixed feelings. They condemned "any form of interference with private or public property".But, they added, "the image of the US First Lady was not something anyone was proud of".
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He said no deportations happen unless people violate the law, or choose to return home. After leaving Khartoum a few weeks into the war, Yakoub moved three times in search of safety within Sudan. When he couldn't find refuge, he paid smugglers to take him to Egypt. He believed the three-day journey across the desert would lead him to safety and stability, but life in Egypt proved difficult. After arriving in Cairo in January 2024, he slept on cold streets for days, waiting to register with UNHCR. Eventually, he gave up, saying the waiting time was too long. He moved into a small apartment with eight other Sudanese men and worked sporadically as a day labourer. Still, without proper documentation, he risked arrest as authorities began rounding up migrants without papers and deporting them. "The conditions there were not suitable for a refugee ... I did not have the proper documentation, and I was running from the authorities all the time. There was no way I could stay," he said, speaking to Reuters from a migrant camp outside Athens. "I was afraid of getting arrested and being sent back to Sudan, so I went to Libya," he said, "But I found the situation there much worse." Critics of the asylum law say its criteria for determining refugee status are vague and it jeopardises the legal protection of those already recognised as refugees - including those with UNHCR documentation. Lotfy, whose organisation provides legal support to migrants, said the new law appeared to have emboldened security forces further, with a rise in police reports and cases against Sudanese and sub-Saharan Africans. His organisation has documented dozens of cases where police confiscated UNHCR papers before deporting refugees, he said. Egypt's Fawzi denied any refugees or asylum seekers registered with UNHCR had been deported. Numbers of deportations are not made public but according to two Egyptian security sources speaking on condition of anonymity, the security services had deported nearly 21,000 Sudanese, as of the end of March 2025, for their illegal presence or for violating Egypt's laws. Rights group Amnesty International has also documented the detention of migrants in Egypt in what it called cruel and inhuman conditions ahead of such deportations, which it says violate international law. Egyptian officials say the government has shown generosity by absorbing so many Sudanese despite economic pressures such as double-digit inflation and a dollar crunch. Fawzi said everyone benefits from national subsidy schemes. Migrants in Egypt who spoke to Reuters disputed this, as did an internal EU commission report in 2024 seen by Reuters. It said about 1.5 million of the 9 million migrants Egypt says it has taken in were in vulnerable situations. Of them, nearly 1 million were registered as refugees and asylum seekers as of May 2025, according to the UNHCR. "Migrants and refugees are not entitled to domestic subsidy schemes or social protection programs and a large number of them have become food insecure," the report said, adding that this had prompted many to move onwards. Five Western diplomats and EU officials said Cairo has attempted to pressure Brussels into increasing financial aid - in exchange for stopping migrants from heading to Europe. Tineke Strik, a member of the European Parliament and rapporteur for Egypt, said during a visit in December she met Fawzi and he asked her, "Imagine if our border guards took a four-week holiday. What would happen then?" "They are really using the migration card to get money from the EU," Strik said. Fawzi declined to comment. In March, the EU announced a 7.4 billion euro funding package for Egypt as part of a push to stem migrant flows. Anti-immigration rhetoric has surged throughout the EU since more than a million people, mainly from Syria, arrived via the Mediterranean in 2015. This hostility has been exploited by right-wing and nationalist parties, pushing governments to adopt increasingly restrictive migration policies focused on returns. In recent months, the EU and member states have proposed policies criticised by human rights group to accelerate deportations and send migrants to hubs in third-party countries with which migrants have no connection. Two months after arriving in Libya, Yakoub boarded a dinghy bound for Crete with about 50 other people, mostly Sudanese. The Eastern Mediterranean route he took was the second most active route into the EU from January to April, with 12,228 people crossing, the EU's border agency Frontex said. The Central Mediterranean route to Italy and Malta was the most active. Though the Eastern route has seen a year-on-year decline in traffic, the number of Sudanese has surged to among the top three nationalities from January to May, totalling about 1,469 people, according to Frontex. This represents a significant rise from 361 during the same period last year and 237 the year before. Yakoub said he was relieved to be safe finally in Greece, and to start thinking about the future. "If Greece offers me safety and stability, I will stay."
