The Czech Republic will end its border controls with Slovakia on Sunday, February 5, in an attempt to deal with migration from Slovakia, Czech authorities said.
«As of February 5, permanent controls at the border with Slovakia, which the government introduced due to the increase in illegal immigration on September 29 last year, will end,» reads a statement released on the social network Twitter by the Czech Republic’s Interior Ministry.
However, as detailed by the country’s Executive, police officers will not disappear from the borders and will continue to carry out daily random checks at border crossings.
The decision comes after Czech authorities noticed a decrease in the number of migrants entering the country. The number of arrests has fallen since September from dozens of migrants a day to just a few, according to ‘Ceske Noviny’.
During this time, Slovakia has criticized the Czech government’s decision, reiterating that immigration must be addressed but protecting the external borders of the Schengen area, taking timely measures at the transactional level or harmonizing the visa policy of countries outside the European Union.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
