Last week, Austria and the Czech Republic restored border controls with Slovakia
The Austrian government has announced that the country has re-established control at the border checkpoints with Slovakia due to the recent increase in the influx of illegal migrants into the country.
Control was restored on Wednesday morning, September 28, at 11 border crossings, and this decision was officially confirmed by the Minister of the Interior of Austria Gerhard Karner: “We must have time to react before the smugglers,” the minister said, adding that control is being reintroduced. to prevent the illegal passage of migrants through Austria as a transit zone to other countries. This issue became especially relevant after the Czech Republic reintroduced border controls with Slovakia.
The Czech Republic announced early last week that it was closing its border with Slovakia to protect it from illegal immigrants transiting to Germany. Border control here was restored at midnight from 28 to 29 September.
This year, the number of illegal migrants arriving in the Czech Republic has increased by 1,200 percent, with a total of 11,000 migrants caught by the country’s police.
About 500 Czech police and 60 customs officers are stationed along the 250-kilometer Czech-Slovak border, and people can only cross it at 27 official checkpoints.
The Slovak Ministry of the Interior reacted to these measures by explaining to the public that they are not directed against Slovakia, but against secondary migration, which has increased dramatically at the external border due to the lack of proper protection of the Schengen area.
Slovak officials urged the EU and Frontex to better protect the EU’s borders. The problems of secondary migration should be addressed mainly in third countries, Turkey, and the Western Balkans as a priority.
Six other EU countries also currently have border controls in place due to migration threats. While Austria exercises border controls with Slovakia, Slovenia, and Hungary, Denmark has land borders and ferry ports with Germany and Sweden.
Germany, for its part, has control of the land border with Austria, as does France. Norway and Sweden also have border controls. The first checks passports at ports with ferry connections to Denmark, Germany, and Sweden, the second at all internal borders.