Migration: Central Europe: New border controls are intended to stop smugglers

In the fight against smugglers and irregular migration, more and more Central European EU states are relying on temporary border controls. Slovakia decided on Wednesday to send police officers to its southern border with Hungary. The measure will begin on Thursday and will initially last ten days, the caretaker government announced, according to the TASR agency in Bratislava.

Personal checks should therefore be carried out “in a flexible manner” along the entire border, which is more than 650 kilometers long. The aim is to reduce the number of irregular migrants who come to Europe on the Balkan route and want to reach Western Europe via Slovakia as a transit country.

The neighboring countries Czech Republic, Poland and Austria had previously started stricter controls on the border with Slovakia. This was done in close consultation, it was said. In the Czech Republic, more than two dozen migrants were arrested within the first few hours, most of them from Syria, as the authorities announced on X, formerly Twitter.

Faeser: Close cooperation with neighbors

According to Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD), the stricter controls in the Czech Republic, Poland and Austria on the border with Slovakia are also closely coordinated with Germany. “We are working closely with our neighboring countries to limit irregular migration and to dismantle the cruel business of smuggling gangs,” said Draht to the German Press Agency in Berlin on Wednesday. In discussions with her counterparts in recent days, there was great agreement that additional measures were necessary and that smuggling routes had to be interrupted. “The earlier and the more intensive these controls take place, the fewer people will be able to travel on and come to Germany unregistered.”

The Czech police carry out random checks at 17 road, 7 railway and 3 waterway crossings as well as along the approximately 250 kilometer long green border with Slovakia. The Polish border guard began stricter controls at the eight road and three rail border crossings with Slovakia.

According to the Interior Ministry, 39,688 irregular migrants were counted in Slovakia from the beginning of the year to the end of September. That is eleven times more than in the same period last year. Slovakia has been part of the Schengen area since 2007, where passport-free travel should actually be possible. The country has around five and a half million inhabitants.

The number of asylum seekers in Germany is increasing

The Slovak Foreign Ministry called on commuters and travelers to allow more time for their journeys. The economic, cultural and family ties to the Czech Republic are particularly close: until the peaceful partition on January 1, 1993, Czechs and Slovaks lived in a common state, Czechoslovakia.

A week ago, Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) ordered “additional, flexible, priority checks on the smuggling routes at the borders with Poland and the Czech Republic.” The number of asylum seekers in Germany has risen massively this year. From January to August, more than 204,000 people applied for the first time – 77 percent more than in the same period last year.