As a response to the increased number of irregular migrants, Austria, Czechia, and Poland have introduced controls on borders with Slovakia.
Frontier checks have become effective today and are set to last for a period of ten days, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
The decision has been confirmed by Austria’s Minister of the Interior, Gerhard Karner.
We have to control effectively before the smugglers change their routes. The focus is on combating the brutal and inhumane smuggler mafia. That’s why border controls with Slovakia will be resumed from midnight on Wednesday. The controls carried out so far in the area near the border will be intensified into border point controls.
Austria’s Ministry of the Interior said that as part of efforts to halt an immediate relocation of the smuggling mafia’s routes towards this country, border checks on the Austrian-Slovak border are needed; otherwise, an alternative route could arise for the smuggling mafia through Slovakia to Austria.
There are eleven border checkpoints on the Austrian border with Slovakia. Border controls are closely coordinated with the Slovakian authorities, and border controls with Slovakia and Hungary will continue.
Such a decision has been criticized by Slovakia’s Prime Minister Ludovit Odor while stressing that it is needed to find a Europe-wide solution regarding the problem of migrants.
The figures from the Interior Ministry revealed that Slovakia registered a total of 39.688 migrants since the beginning of the year until October 1, or 11 times more compared to the figures from a year ago.
In addition, police officials detained a total of 17,529 internationals in the first seven months of this year, accounting for an increase of 15,611 detained internationals compared to the figures from the same period in 2022. On September 3, the figure stood at over 27,000.
At the same time, authorities in Slovakia also announced that they will resume border controls at the border with Hungary in order to minimise the increased number of migrants who use Slovakia as a transit country.
Recently, the election winner in Slovakia, Roberto Fico, said that his country should reintroduce border controls with Hungary.
According to him, such a measure is needed to halt irregular migrants from reaching Slovakia and move further into the bloc.
A report from Balkan Insight notes that the Slovak police force lacks nearly 2,000 officers, and the border is nearly four times longer than the Hungarian-Serbian border. Police Chief Stefa Hamran considered the situation on the Hungarian-Serbian border critical.