Prague, Oct 15 (CTK) – The police uncovered 4,146 illegally staying foreigners in the Czech Republic during the first nine months of the year, which was 3,055 fewer than in the same period last year, foreigner police spokeswoman Katerina Rendlova told CTK on Saturday.
Ukrainians with 1,155 cases were most frequently illegally staying in the Czech Republic.
The number of Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, spoken about in connection with the migrant crisis, considerably decreased.
Last year, migrants from Syria made up roughly one-quarter of all foreigners with illegal stay here. There were 1,920 of them last year, but only 144 this year, Rendlova said.
A similar fall was recorded in the case of people from Afghanistan. This year, the police caught 152 of them, which was 393 fewer than a year ago.
There were 97 Iraqis detained this year, which was 261 fewer than a year ago, she added.
Vladimir Takac, head of the risk analysis department of the foreigner police, said the situation had improved especially thanks to the new measures introduced at the Balkan route.
He named the building of a fence on the Hungarian border, the closure of a transit route on the border of Macedonia, more rigorous conditions for entry to some countries and improvement in the protection of borders on which various police corps, including the Czech one, started to contribute.
Ukrainians have resumed the first place of detained migrants. The police detained 263 more of them than a year ago.
Ukrainians mostly enter the Czech Republic legally, then exceeding the permitted duration of their stay.
“The obvious rise was largely caused by their being often uncovered in connection with illegal jobs and by their having forged documents of EU countries,” Takac told CTK.
Ukrainians are followed by the citizens of Russia, Kuwait and Vietnam whose numbers were similar to those recorded last year.
For them,the Czech Republic is the country of final destination.
In mid-2015, the foreigner police stepped up the checks that mainly relate to the regions neighbouring with Austria. The migrants were most often entering the Czech Republic in this way.
Since this August, the police also widened random checks at the German border as some unsuccessful asylum seekers might try their luck elsewhere, Takac said.
This year, the situation in transit migration has been calmer than in 2015, he added.
Last year, the police found over 3,000 illegal migrants since the beginning of the random checks.
In some weeks, there were over 200 of them, in one week as many as over 500.
The differing figures are mostly associated with the uncovering of people smugglers, Takac said.
“Their number fell this year, but their professionalism increased as they are looking for new routes and methods,” he added.
