Austria and Czech to reintroduce checks on border with Slovakia as of midnight Wednesday

Austria and Czech to reintroduce checks on border with Slovakia as of midnight Wednesday

Austria is set to reintroduce checks on its border with Slovakia as of midnight on Wednesday, the spokesman of Austrian Interior Minister Gerhard Karner told Austria Press Agency (APA) on Wednesday morning. The move came after Slovakia's other western neighbour, the Czech Republic, decided to reintroduce checks along its entire border with Slovakia for at least ten days as of midnight on Wednesday due to increased illegal migration.

The Austrian interior minister explained that Austria is implementing the same measure for the same reason. "It's crucial to react before people-smugglers do," he said, adding that most illegal migrants enter Austria via the border with Hungary. According to the minister, police officers will focus mainly on vans and larger vehicles, as they are more likely to be transporting illegal migrants.

Border checks that the Czech Republic plans to conduct along its border with Slovakia as of Thursday (September 29) were discussed with Bratislava beforehand, chief of Slovak diplomacy Rastislav Kacer declared on Tuesday. "This falls under the remit of the Interior Ministry and I know that Interior Ministers have been holding talks for some time. It's not our bilateral problem, it's broader in scope," said Kacer. The Interior Ministry accepts this plan, underlining that it is related to insufficient protection of EU's external borders in the wake of secondary migration and not meant as a measure against Slovakia. (TASR)

Ben Pascoe, Photo: TASR

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