Prague, July 30 (CTK) – The Czech police are likely to further tighten border checks over illegal migrants and deploy more policemen in them in August or September, Interior Minister Milan Chovanec (Social Democrats, CSSD) and Police President Tomas Tuhy told reporters Thursday.
About 100 police officers from the regions that do not face migration problems should be deployed to protect the border.
The police are now assessing the situation and measures taken against illegal immigrants, Chovanec said.
“We may decide to tighten the checks in August and deploy more policemen,” Chovanec said.
Tuhy said the number of border checks might increase at the end of the summer holiday or in early September.
The police must monitor the border and other entries to the Czech Republic more intensively if they want to efficiently fight illegal migration, Tuhy pointed out.
Some 100 policemen should be transferred along the whole southern border, Tuhy said.
He admitted that the measures would require extra costs and that some localities might be short of policemen who would be sent to protect the border, but not in such an extent to threaten safety in the regions.
Chovanec said the Austrian refugee facilities are full, which is a problem because most refugees come to the Czech Republic from Austria. Austria has no empty facility for refugees that the Czech Republic would return to it, he added.
Austria expects the number of migrants arriving on its territory this year to reach 70,000, Chovanec said.
Austrians asked Czechs to take care of a certain part of their illegal migrants, but the Czech Republic is unable to meet the request, he said.
“We don’t have the capacity,” Chovanec said.
He said new Czech facilities for migrants are being built so that the migrants detained on Czech territory could be placed in them.
Slovakia agreed to provide temporary accommodation to up to 500 migrants who applied for asylum in Austria.
In the first half of this year, the Czech police detained over 3000 illegal migrants, which is almost 50 percent more than last year.
During the current tightened border checks, the police have detained more than 750 people, Tuhy said.
“On average, we succeed in returning about 90 refugees a month,” he added.
On Wednesday, the Czech government approved a national migration strategy, which declares that the country would meet its promises concerning refugees, keep fighting illegal migration, help seek solutions to the refugee crisis in Europe and promote the maintaining of free movement within the Schengen Area.
Chovanec said the Czech public should receive all the available data related to migration.
