The Czech government announced today that it will extend for 20 days, until November 22, random checks at the border with Slovakia in order to stop irregular immigration.

Austria, the Czech Republic and Poland introduced controls at their borders with Slovakia in early October, which they then extended until 2 November.

Slovakia has seen a recent increase in the number of migrants and asylum seekers, mainly from Serbia, via Hungary, who want to head to richer countries in western Europe.

“As long as there is no truly effective protection at the EU’s external borders, we have to fight against the effects of irregular immigration at the internal borders of the Schengen area,” Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan told Platform X.

Between January and August, Slovakia detected around 24,000 undocumented migrants, compared to 10,900 registered last year. On October 5, it implemented controls on its border with Hungary, in response to measures taken earlier by Prague, Vienna and Warsaw.

Germany, a country where many of the asylum seekers want to reach, tightened controls on its eastern borders with the Czech Republic and Poland at the end of September. Austria also started border controls with the Czech Republic on October 17.

The introduction of checks at the borders of Schengen countries is allowed in exceptional cases and Brussels should be informed before they are implemented. The countries that apply these controls are all members of the European Union and the Schengen area.