Prague, June 22 (CTK) – The foreigner police detained 96 illegals immigrants in the Czech Republic in the past week, from Monday, June 15, until this morning, which is three times more than the usual weekly figures, foreigner police spokeswoman Katerina Rendlova told CTK yesterday.
In the night alone, the police detained 21 illegal refugees, while 36 were detained during the weekend.
“Almost all of them were uncovered during the checks of international trains from Austria, mainly in the vicinity of Breclav, [south Moravia], another quite large group was in Prague and also in Pardubice [east Bohemia],” Rendlova said.
Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (senior government Social Democrats, CSSD) announced at an extraordinary meeting of the Chamber of Deputies on Thursday that the Czech police had intensified checks on roads and railways over the influx of illegal immigrants, in particular aboard the trains from Hungary and on selected roads in the borderland.
The measures have been taken in three regions – South Moravia and South Bohemia that border with Austria and on the D1 motorway in the Vysocina Region, Rendlova said.
The traffic and riot police cooperate with the foreigner police during the checks.
During the weekend, the South Moravian police detained 14 illegal immigrants – 13 in a train and one in a coach from Austria.
The Czech foreigner police reacted to the increased influx of immigrants by tightening checks at the end of last year and the beginning of this year already, Rendlova added.
In the first five months of this year, the foreigner police uncovered 2418 illegal foreigners in the Czech Republic, which is 712 more than during the same period in 2014. The highest share of them came from Kosovo, Syria and Afghanistan, followed by Iraq, Pakistan, Algeria and Somalia.
The European Union faces a strong wave of illegal refugees from Asia and Africa who have ended mainly in Italy and Greece. This is why the European Commission (EC) has proposed obligatory immigrant quotas for the spreading of tens of thousands of asylum seekers in the EU member states.
The Czech government as well as President Milos Zeman are opposed to the quotas. They rather propose a direct aid to the refugees in their original countries or in refugee camps.
The Czech Republic is mainly a transit country for refugees.
From January to May 2015, 679 foreigners asked for international protection in the Czech Republic, which is 286 more than during the same period last year. About a half of them came from Ukraine, followed by Cuba, Syria and Vietnam.In 2014, 1156 foreigners asked for international protection in the country.
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