Czechs impose checks at Slovak border

Описание: (29 Sep 2022)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Stary Hrozenkov - 29 September 2022
1. Wide of border patrol officers walking
2. Wide of a border patrol, walking beside sign reading (Czech) "Beware, state border"
3. Tult up of officers looking at map
4. Wide pan of mountains
5. Wide of border patrol
6. SOUNDBITE (Czech) Bohdan Varys, Deputy Chief of the Regional Police:
"The wave started on 20th May and we have detained over 3,150 people. It has risen a hundredfold when compared to the previous years."
7. Police officer checking a car
8. Various of police officers checking a truck
9. SOUNDBITE (Czech) Bohdan Varys, Deputy Chief of the Regional Police:
"Firstly, it can deter migrants from choosing this road. Also, if we are present in the forests and at the border stations, we will probably detain higher number of migrants."
10. Various of border patrol
11. SOUNDBITE (Czech) Bohdan Varys, Deputy Chief of the Regional Police:
"When we speak to them, we learn that their final destination is Germany or further on to Holland and Belgium."
12. Various of border patrol
STORYLINE:
Czech border police reported traffic delays on Thursday after authorities in the Czech Republic, together with Austria, renewed checks at the border with Slovakia amid a new wave of migration.
According to reports, border police also fired warning shots in the air before detaining a van driver alongside 15 migrants on Thursday morning.
Speaking at the Czech-Slovak border in Stary Hrozenkov, Bohdan Varys, the Deputy Chief of the Regional Police said the "latest wave started on 20th May."
"We have detained over 3,150 people. It has risen a hundredfold when compared to the previous years", he added.
Czech police reported delays that mostly truck drivers had to endure after the new measures came into force on Thursday at 27 border crossings, while Austrian authorities enforced the checks at 11 crossings.  
The measures will initially be in place for 10 days.
Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia are all part of the European Union's visa-free Schengen zone, where residents of member nations typically cross borders without presenting passports or visas.
Schengen countries have adopted temporary border controls in the past for various reasons, including to curb illegal migration and to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
In the first eight hours of enforcing the measures, Czech police said some 120 illegal migrants had been detained on Czech territory, together with nine human smugglers.
After Russia invaded Ukraine, the Czech Republic took some 430,000 Ukrainian refugees but the country's Interior Minister said the latest measure is to deal with illegal migration.
The Czech Interior Ministry said the checks were necessary after authorities detained almost 12,000 migrants across Czech territory this year, most of them from Syria.
That is more than the 8,500 seen during the previous massive migration wave in Europe in 2015, when the Czech Republic was not on the main route.
Some 125 human smugglers have been arrested this year, a significant increase compared with the previous years.
AP Video shot by Jan Gebert
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