Czech government extends Slovak border checks by 20 days

PRAGUE - The Czech government extended its checks on the border with European Union neighbour Slovakia by another 20 days, seeking to control a spike in the flow of illegal migrants, Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said on Wednesday.

Czech police started checks on the 252-km (157 mile) border on Sept. 29, initially for 10 days.

Before the checks, the central European country had detained around 12,000 illegal migrants in 2022, a 12-fold increase from a year ago.

The vast majority have been Syrians, mostly coming from Turkey, the government has said. They mainly continue to Germany and elsewhere.

Slovakia has criticised the Czech border checks as being against the principles of the border check-free Schengen area within the EU.