Czechia and Poland have decided to extend internal controls at their borders with Slovakia until November 22. The measure was first introduced on October 4 this year amidst an increase of irregular migrants detected at these borders.
In a statement released on November 1, the Department of Communications of the Czech Ministry of the Interior has pointed out that the checks at the borders with Slovakia will remain in place for another 20 days as a part of a coordinated procedure with neighbouring states.
Controls at the border with Slovakia are part of measures to protect internal borders, the measure is coordinated with neighbouring states. Inspections are random and adapted to the current development of the situation.
The Ministry has not excluded the possibility that border controls might be prolonged again beyond November 22, according to the situation.
Poland has undertaken the same move as well, announcing the extension of border controls validity until November 22, which were supposed to expire after November 2.
Warsaw introduced controls on October 4 too, citing “a serious threat of illegal immigration on the Polish-Slovak section of the state border.” The measure was supposed to remain effective for one week, but was then extended until November 2, in spite of claiming that it had shown “good results” and “clear effects.”
The number of internal border controls within what is supposed to be a border-free zone has increased in recent weeks, due to a growth in the number of irregular migrants moving from eastern Schengen to the west.
On November 1, France has also extended border controls at all of its internal borders, citing new terrorist threats and external borders situation as the reason behind the necessity of such a measure. The same were supposed to expire on October 31, and have been in place for several years now.
On November 12, Sweden will also extend internal border controls at all internal borders due to the Islamist terrorist threat.
Austria, on the other hand, currently has border controls in place with Hungary and Slovenia due to pressure on the asylum reception system, high migratory pressure at the EU’s external border to Türkiye and the Western Balkans, threat of arms trafficking and criminal networks due to the war in Ukraine, human smuggling. The measure was expected to expire on November 11, however, the authorities have already announced they will keep it in place for six more months.
Border controls between Slovenia with Croatia and Hungary are also in place until at least November 19, 2023.
Other border controls currently within the Schengen zone include controls between Denmark and Germany, Germany and Austria, etc.
All of these countries report a high number of irregular migrants reaching their territory. Slovakia itself claims to have detected approximately 24,500 undocumented migrants from the beginning of the year to the end of August, compared with less than 11,000 throughout the entire 2022.