Prague 24 August : The amount of illegal immigrants who have entered the Czech Republic from Slovakia has dramatically increased this year, as per statistics provided by the Ministry of Interior.A total of 3,651 illegal immigrants were identified in the Czech Republic this year as of August 21, Xinhua news agency quoted the Ministry as declaring in an announcement issued on Tuesday.
The number is much higher than 1,330 in 2021, and much more than in the past which were in the low hundreds.
The Ministry said that the majority of those migrants are Syrians traveling across the Czech Republic to enter Germany or Austria as their final destination.
“So far the numbers haven’t been a factor in the rise in crimes,” Interior Minister Vit Rakusan told the press conference.
Rakusan hopes to improve cooperation in illegal migration on the level of the European Union (EU), with a particular focus on the EU’s border with the outside.
The Minister also announced the Prague plans to build more facilities for migrants in detention and increase the penalties for those who traffic in human beings.
“We would like to keep the borders open.
But we need to be prepared for any scenario,” he said, noting that the introduction of border controls along the Czech-Slovak border is the last option “in the event of extreme developments”.
The Czech Republic on Tuesday launched two-day border security exercises along its frontier with Slovakia.
In more than 20 border crossings, including road and rail crossings police are reintroducing identification checks, despite the fact that both countries are part of the Schengen Area, the passport-free zone that is used by a number of EU members as well as a few other countries.
