Slovenia reintroduced temporary border controls on its borders with Croatia and Hungary on October 21.Continue reading
Just a day after the Slovak government announced that it was deploying “massive” police and armed forces to the Hungarian-Slovak border to curb illegal migration, the operation was called off, saying it was a “one-off measure,” Euronews reports.
As Hungary Today reported earlier this week, the Slovak government announced on Monday a major police and armed forces deployment at the Hungarian-Slovak border to prevent more illegal migrants from entering its territory. Prime Minister Robert Fico said that the measure was justified to prevent people potentially linked to “terrorist” groups from crossing the border with Hungary into Slovakia. He added that 5,000 illegal migrants crossed the border last year and ten times as many this year.
However, just a day later on Tuesday, the government backed down from the measure, saying
it was “one-off action aimed to clearly show that Slovakia is not a safe haven for migrants, especially for smugglers,”
Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj-Eštok told reporters.
Meanwhile, the Czech government has extended controls at the Czech-Slovak border for 20 days. Czech Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Vít Rakušan announced on X (formerly Twitter) that random checks will continue until November 22.
Vláda na můj návrh schválila prodloužení zvýšené ochrany česko-slovenské hranice o 20 dní, tedy do 22. listopadu. Dokud nebude fungovat skutečně účinná ochrana vnější hranice EU, budeme muset dopady nelegální migrace řešit na vnitřní hranicích schengenského prostoru.
— Vít Rakušan (@Vit_Rakusan) November 1, 2023
The measures, introduced at the beginning of October, were initially in force until November 2. The Czech Republic, in agreement with Poland and Austria, introduced controls at the Slovak border on October 4, citing increased migratory pressure. “Until we have a truly effective protection of the EU’s external borders, we will have to deal with the effects of illegal migration at the internal borders of the Schengen area,” wrote Vít Rakušan.
Via Euronews, MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Polícia Slovenskej republiky