The Czech Republic is introducing police checks at 27 former border crossings with Slovakia to curb illegal migration, its Interior Minister Vit Rakusan announced on September 27.

The measure will last for ten days and will affect 17 road crossings, seven railway crossings and three river crossings. It will go into effect at midnight on Wednesday. It will be impossible to cross the state border in other places, and the authorities will also check the so-called green border.

The Czech police have detained 12,000 illegal migrants in the country since the beginning of the year, which is significantly higher than in 2015, when a wave of migration swept across Europe. One hundred and twenty-five migrant smugglers were also detained, which is also several times higher than the average in recent years.

“Of course, we cannot hermetically close the 251 km state border, but we are doing everything possible to limit illegal border crossing,” said the head of the Czech police, Martin Vondrasek. “Our goal is not to complicate the lives of ordinary citizens,” he added.

The reinvigorated border check will involve 500 police officers and 60 customs officers, with inspectors on duty in 12-hour shifts at each location. The cost of the operation was estimated by the police at 20 million crowns (€810,000).

The temporary restoration of control on the Czech-Slovak border was approved by the Czech government on 26 September.

“I discussed this several times with the Minister of the Interior of Slovakia and asked the Slovak side to comply with the international agreement. I can honestly say that with diplomatic steps we have not achieved such success as we expected,” said the Minister of the Interior of the Czech Republic. He said his office had already notified Slovak Interior Minister Roman Miculec about the resumption of border controls.

bbabo.Net