A significant increase in irregular migrants has been reported in the Czech Republic during the past year. Most of the migrants who tried to enter the country illegally in 2022 were Syrian citizens, SchengenVisaInfo reports.
According to InfoMigrants, last year, the number of irregular migrants entering the Czech Republic almost tripled to 29,235, while in 2021, the country had reported 11,170 irregular migrants.
In addition, Interior Ministry figures reveal that in 2022, almost 21,000 of the arrivals were Syrians seeking to travel to Western Europe. Meanwhile, only 694 migrants, including 50 Syrians, applied for asylum in the Czech Republic itself.
Last year, police also arrested 277 suspected human traffickers, which is more than four times the number od those arrested in 2021.
At the end of last August, Czech authorities reported that a total of 3,651 people had crossed the border through Slovakia.
Further data from the Ministry also show that the number of illegal border crossings was 1,300 more people than in 2021 and much higher than in 2020, when about 100 people entered this country illegally.
Later in September, the Czech government decided to reintroduce internal border controls with Slovakia in an effort to prevent illegal migrants from using its territory to transit into Germany.
According to the government, border controls were introduced from midnight on September 28 until September 29.
At the time, commenting on this decision, the Minister of Interior of the Czech Republic said that as regards the number of illegal migrants, it has increased by 1,200 per cent in 2022, where most of the migrants were Syrian. He also added that the number of migrants detected by the Czech police was 11,000.
A month later, the country decided again to extend the current border controls on the border with Slovakia.
In this regard, the Minister of the Interior pointed out that border controls on the Czechia-Slovakia border will certainly not be removed until after October 7.
In addition, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Poland have been among the main destinations for Ukrainian refugees fleeing the war. Thus, taking into account that the country has shown support for the refugees who came from Ukraine, it has recently announced that Ukrainian refugees can continue to live in its territory under the status of temporary protection until March 31 of the next year.